Joseph and Chris Visit the Stauf House
by Jemascola
Summary: In April 2001, two young boys explore Henry Stauf's mansion from The 7th Guest.
1. Prologue

**Joseph and Chris Visit the Stauf House**

_**By Joe**_

**Summary:** The first of a 16-part series. In April 2001, two young boys explore Stauf's mansion from The 7th Guest.

**Prologue**

This story is based on a computer game known as The 7th Guest. Trilobyte, a gaming company, created the game, and Virgin Interactive published it in the early 1990s.

In The 7th Guest, Henry Stauf, a bald man with brown hair at the sides, was rumored to be the cause of deaths of children in Harley, New York. An orphan boy, Stauf grew up in a place known as Vincent's Orphanage. The priests were fed up with Stauf's lying, stealing, and violence. As a young adult, Stauf spent some time at a reform, but he soon decided to give up and leave. He lived in the streets of Harley. He begged passer-bys for money. Most of the time, policemen would beat him every time he did such a thing.

One night in the forest, Stauf's life changed forever. He dreamed of a doll. In addition to that, some voices from his head ordered Stauf to build the doll. Stauf gathered the materials he needed and made the doll. He went to town and showed the doll to a bartender. The bartender said his daughter would like to have the doll. In return for the doll, the bartender provided Stauf food and shelter. Stauf was also given a workplace in an empty room of the bar. With time, Stauf dreamed of more toys and dolls. The voices in his head had greater influence. Stauf sold more and more toys. Eventually, he constructed dozens of dolls, puzzles, and toys. He sold them in a store he opened called Wonderworld and Toys. It was conveniently located in Harley by the Hudson River. The "Stauf toys" became very popular with the children. Nearly all the children in Harley purchased Stauf's merchandise. "A Stauf toy is a toy for life," people said.

But a dark side to the story was entangled in the plot. The children who owned a Stauf toy soon became ill with a virus that could not seem to be cured. Doctors failed to identify the virus. Not long afterward, Mr. Stauf shut down his store with no explanation for his sudden action. Stauf had seemingly disappeared without a trace for several years.

It wasn't until 1931 that Stauf's presence was unearthed again. Stauf mailed six invitations to a party at his elegant mansion. The invited guests all accepted the invitations, and on October 31, 1931, all six guests entered the mansion of Henry Stauf. It was believed that a seventh guest also arrived, although he was not invited. None of the guests were seen or heard from again. Stauf himself was never heard from again. His travel agent claimed he went on a cruise of the world and just disappeared, although nobody was certain that claim was credible. Most importantly, the mystery of the seventh guest was baffling to everyone. Perhaps nobody would ever know what happened that night. That is until two boys named Joseph and Chris entered the Stauf mansion and investigated the ruins of the mansion.

Joseph was 11 years old, but his 12th birthday was rapidly approaching in May. Joseph was short, and his height was only about 4'6" and weighed about 80 pounds. Joseph had short brown hair. He once had a bowl cut, but he got a Caesar cut as the barbers called it, which was similar to a buzz cut, although some hair was left longer at the front so it could be gelled either upward or downward. Joseph got the Caesar cut because it was too difficult for him to maintain his bowl cut. More importantly, though, he didn't think he looked very good with his bowl cut.

Chris was 8 years old, and he was due to turn 9 in August. Chris was also short, but he was similar in height to Joseph. Chris was a little bit big-boned, as well. Joseph was but an inch or two taller than Chris. Chris had short blonde hair and had a buzz cut.

Joseph and Chris both lived in the growing town of Fayetteville. Both lived near each other. They lived on two different streets that were connected by Seay Road. Joseph lived on Greenfield Circle, and Chris lived in Asbury Ridge. Both neighborhoods were composed of upper-middle class residents, although Asbury Ridge was built more recently, and Greenfield Circle had started to show its age.

The boys went to the same school, as well. Both boys went to Spring Hill, which was a nice school that was only about 5 years old. It had a shiny red roof and a cheerful atmosphere. It was surrounded by lots of fresh green grass, and it had a parking lot in the front. To the left, there was a bus loop for the buses to park. Behind the school was a soccer field and a playground. At the front of the school to the right, there were several white trailers, which were used for extra classrooms.

Joseph was in the 5th grade and went to Mrs. Sandy Choisnet's class. Chris was in the 3rd grade, and he went to Mrs. Tammy Brown's class. Both Joseph and Chris were very intelligent. In addition to their education in the standard classes, they both went to Mrs. Martie Johnson's enrichment class at different times of the day. The classes were held in a trailer, which was among several other trailers located on the front of the school to the right.

Joseph and Chris rode bus #203 in seat 6a. Despite the fact that the boys were very similar to each other, they had lots of trouble getting along. Chris was more laid-back and calm, but Joseph was wild and out of control. He was primarily silly around Chris for some reason. Joseph often clamed Chris's head arm in his arms and yelled, "Chiefie, chief…CHIFE!" Joseph also wanted Chris to play stupid games on the bus. Sometimes, he would get Chris to pretend that the two of them traveled back in time and met woolly mammoths that could talk and drink orange soda. Other times, he made Chris pretend that the two of them were two men called the Spaceboys, who were men that traveled in space and had adventures.

As one could imagine, Chris was very annoyed by this nonsensical behavior, and he really had a lot of patience to put up with Joseph. Sitting next to him wasn't pleasant, however. One day, the bus driver of bus #203, Mrs. Mann, told Chris he could sit in seat 7a, which was the seat directly behind the current seat. Eager to move from Joseph, Chris moved. Joseph, however, got lonely after a while, so Mrs. Mann said he could sit with Chris in seat 7a. Chris groaned and moaned when he found out that Joseph was going to sit with him again.

A friend of the boys, Tanner Sims, who sat across from seat 7a, noticed one Friday afternoon that the boys had trouble getting along. He wanted to come up with a way that they could be friends with each other. Then, he indirectly dared them to stay at the Stauf house, which was conveniently located on Greenfield Circle. Joseph was eager to do so, and Chris reluctantly agreed.

The next day, Joseph and Chris entered the Stauf mansion. Upon entering the house, they forgot all knowledge about Stauf and his mansion. They aimlessly solved puzzles that laid around the house over a course of several days. While they spent time at the property, they met former tenants of the building, "Old Man" John and Bob Carmichael. Both had a story to share about the frightening events inside the house. That didn't keep the boys from wanting to solve the mystery. Finally, after solving many puzzles, they reached their destination, which was the attic. There, they solved the final puzzle, and before entering another room in the attic, they discovered the secret of the seventh guest, and they remembered everything they did before entering the mansion. The boys entered the back room, and they saw Henry Stauf himself sitting in an old wheelchair, and they watched with horror as he tried to devour Tad. Tad finally broke free from Stauf, and Stauf was seen sinking into the floor. The boys thought that they had beaten Stauf and solved the mystery. However, they were not even close.

It turned out that Stauf still resided in the house, and he chased the boys out. Instantly, Joseph and Chris took dramatic action. They called the police and hired scientists, priests, and all sorts of professionals to invade the Stauf house in an attempt to beat him.

Stauf was not beaten until Joseph and Chris pretended to play Spaceboys. They dug out Stauf's coffin and flew in their ship. They tossed Stauf's coffin toward heck, and that temporarily stopped the haunting. Joseph, Chris, "Old Man" John, and Bob moved into the Stauf house and fixed it up. They felt that Stauf had been defeated until the night they played cards in the attic when mysterious things suddenly occurred.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

It was a rainy Friday afternoon on April 6, 2001. In a small city known as Fayetteville stood a large school called Spring Hill. Spring Hill had lots of cars parked in front of it on the school parking lot. In the bus loop, there were many buses waiting to take the kids home. Not a single soul was outside before the bell rang. All the kids were inside the school doing their schoolwork just before the bell rang. In Mrs. Choisnet's 5th grade class, an 11-year-old boy named Joseph was trying to solve the last math problem on the board: 1,000,000,000,000,098.888 times 1,000,000,000,000,098.888. Joseph was just about finished solving his math problem when the bell rang.

All the kids in school grabbed their things, and then, hundreds of kids flocked out of the school and ran to their sources of transportation. Joseph followed a few other kids onto bus #203. Joseph ran down the black aisle and went to seat 7a. A moment later, another kid entered the bus and walked down the aisle. He then reluctantly joined Joseph in seat 7a. He looked like he was not looking forward to sitting with Joseph.

A few minutes passed by, and Joseph and the other kid had not yet exchanged a single word. Once all the kids boarded bus #203, it left Spring Hill and drove to a road in Joseph's neighborhood several miles from Spring Hill. The road was called Seay Road, and many of Joseph's friends lived in houses in neighborhoods along Seay Road. The bus drove along Seay Road and dropped off kids who were eager to come home from a typical harsh day at school.

The environment inside the bus was happy and cheerful. The interior of the bus had a light green colored frame, and the seats were dark green. Like most school buses, this one seemed to be dirty, greasy, and lacking of a sophisticated design. Many of the students were doing many average things like homework, talking with friends, and listening to CDs. However, there was one seat with much more lively activity.

Seat 7a was where Joseph and the other boy named Chris sat. Presently, Joseph was acting very silly and making strange noises. Joseph was even bouncing around and jumping out of his seat. Joseph sat by the black aisle, while Chris sat inside the seat. Chris moped. His head was resting on his two hands. Chris looked bored and unhappy.

"How did I ever get stuck with you?" Chris said to Joseph in an angry voice.

"Mrs. Mann said I could sit here. I was lonely where I sat before, so I moved here," Joseph said in a very dopey voice.

"Hey, Tanner, do you see this child acting insane?" Chris yelled across the aisle. The boy, Tanner, was sitting across the aisle from Joseph and Chris. He looked in their direction. At that moment, Joseph stopped acting silly and transformed into a boy wearing an elegant 18th century robe, reading a book, and writing notes from what he read. This was Joseph's disguise to look intelligent. He was certain the disguise would fool Tanner.

"What do you think, Chris?" Tanner said, believing that it was obvious that Joseph was not insane. Chris frowned and then glowered at Joseph, who was only pretending to act mature. Chris was angry, as Joseph's disguise gave Tanner reason to believe that Joseph never acted silly around Chris.

Tanner Sims was the third grader who sat across from Joseph and Chris. He looked at them both. Tanner had average short brown hair and had a short face. Tanner never noticed Joseph was acting silly and his inability to be friends with Chris. Suddenly, he heard a loud noise across the seat and looked over. Then, he saw Joseph acting silly. He watched the two boys across from him quarrel.

Tanner thought, "Those two need something to allow them to become friends. It's about time something should be done to make them get along." Tanner asked Joseph and Chris, "Hey, have you guys heard of the haunted Stauf mansion?"

"Yeah," Joseph said with enthusiasm.

"So, what's the big deal?" Chris asked in a carefree way.

"Well, the house is said to be haunted. Now I myself don't know the history, or anything about the rooms or ghosts, but the only words I've heard about it are, 'don't go into the Stauf house. It's extremely scary and haunted.'" Tanner said.

"Yeah, right," Chris said in the same manner once again.

"Chris, it's located near my house behind the woods on a hill," Joseph said.

"Oh come on," Chris emphasized. "It can't be haunted. There are no such things as ghosts."

"Well, I still want to go," Joseph said.

"Well go ahead and go. I'm not like your father or something," Chris said. "You don't need my permission to go there."

"It's scary," Joseph said, trying to tempt Chris. "I've seen the eerie green-blue light in the upper window," he continued.

"Go if you **want to**!" exclaimed Chris.

"Come on, Chris," Joseph begged. "The house seems to be interesting, and it is way too scary to go by yourself. This time, I am going to solve the strange mystery of the house."

"He's right, Chris," Tanner said. "I have had some friends who went in, and discovered a lot, but never told me because they were too scared when they came back, and were afraid they would be cursed if they told me. I've also had some friends that have never returned," Tanner continued.

Chris hesitated. Joseph said that he would try to solve the mystery. "If we solve the mystery, then we might get money," Chris thought. "Oh, all right, I guess we both can come," Chris said sadly.

"Yes!" Joseph exclaimed. Suddenly, the bus came to a halt. It was at Joseph's house. Joseph grabbed his dark blue L.L. Bean book bag and ran through the aisle and down the steps, passed the bus, and went home.

Joseph's house was two stories tall and almost a completely brick house. It was part siding and part brick. It was very large and had large rooms. The house wasn't easily seen because it was located behind many trees in the front yard. The property the house was on had a large front yard and very large backyard. A small porch was in the front of the house where Joseph's mom often sat to watch Joseph ride his bike. Joseph went to his room entering the house through the front door.

Joseph went up the gray carpeted stairs in the front hall, turned the corner of the stairs, and went to the second floor. Joseph walked left passing the bathroom and his mom's room, which was next to Joseph's room. Of the three bedrooms in the house, her room was the smallest, and Joseph's room was in the middle. Joseph's father's bedroom, which was down the hall from Joseph's room, was naturally the largest bedroom because it was the master bedroom. Joseph went into his walk-in closet, and then he knocked on the wall in the back of the closet. Then, a small shelf turned around. Joseph pulled a dusty old book out of the shelf. It was about the size of an average Webster dictionary and was dark red. There were words graven into the book: Everything You Need to Know about Stauf and His House.

Joseph chuckled and said to himself, "Ol'e Chris doesn't know what he's getting into! I've been in that house several times, and got this book from the library. I was kicked out in many different ways, and I was lucky to get out alive." Joseph walked out of the closet and sat down at a purple foldable desk. Joseph turned on his work lamp and continued reading where he left off reading in the book. Joseph pulled out a red bookmark when he began to read. The book Joseph started to read had lots of information about the Stauf house, its history, and lots more. At this moment, Joseph was beginning to read a very informative chapter of the book that was entitled, "The Deep, Dark, and Long Hidden Secrets about the House".

Joseph put the book away about half an hour later when he began to lose interest. The book wasn't talking about strange phenomenon or anything of that topic. Joseph went downstairs and then to another set of stairs in the utility room to his dad's office. He turned on the somewhat dated Packard Bell computer and put in a compact disk. The disk had a computer game called The 7th Guest. Its rating was for teens, but it was still interesting to Joseph. It was based on what the real Stauf house was like, except no one knew exactly what it looked like inside and what happened because just about everyone that went inside to investigate either mysteriously disappeared or refused to tell of his or her experiences. Most explorers, however, never came out…**AGAIN!**

While Joseph was playing the computer game, he wondered if he would have a curse put on him for reading the book with all the information in it, even things talking about Henry Stauf, the man who once owned the strange house!

Joseph completed the challenging computer game, and he learned the full story of The 7th Guest.

"I wonder if that's made up, or if some of it is being made by legend?" Joseph wondered. "There's only one way to find out," he told himself. "The next time I ever enter that house is tomorrow. Then, I will discover all new secrets and be really famous for solving a mystery…if the case if horrible enough," said Joseph.

Meanwhile, the Stauf house was empty. It was sitting behind trees on a hill rotting a lot. A sinister, unwelcoming presence tainted the mansion's aura. The atmosphere seemed mysterious, reluctant, and evil all through the house. Somewhere in the attic, a mysterious figure paced the floors. Then, he lurked downstairs. He glided into the library and discovered a book about his house was missing. He knew the plans of Joseph and Chris, so he made one himself. Then, he put a spell on both Joseph and Chris that would give them a premonition of what would happen to them if they explored his home.

Back at Joseph's house, Joseph was called downstairs for supper. Joseph turned the computer off, and he went downstairs to eat in front of the television. He had decided to try eating in front of the TV for a while. Joseph's mother, a woman with short brown hair, came in and gave Joseph spaghetti. That was his favorite dinner. While Joseph was eating, and the TV was on, Joseph wondered for a moment if he should **really** try going into the Stauf house. There were some very mysterious happenings, and during the other times of him going inside the house, he had experienced some scary things. Joseph stopped thinking about that and began watching Rocket Power, a cartoon on Nickelodeon about four kids who surf, skate, ride bikes, and play hockey. They had many interesting personalities, and the show was very interesting.

Joseph finished his dinner, just after Rocket Power was over, and he turned the TV off. Joseph got up, and began playing more games on the computer upstairs.

Later that night, Joseph went to bed. He placed the book on the shelf in the closet, but he forgot to turn the shelf around. Joseph went into bed, and he soon fell asleep. The book that was taken from the library seemed to open, and then some colorful dust sprinkled out of it, and went straight for Joseph. It went into his head. The instant the dust went into Joseph's head, he began to dream. More magic dust came out of the book, and it went out of Joseph's house and went to where Chris lived.

The next morning, Joseph woke up. He got dressed, ate breakfast, and headed out the door. He put his helmet on and went over to Chris's house. Then, they biked together and went to the Stauf house. Joseph and Chris biked up the narrow pathway. They went to the hill, and went inside the house.

Days passed since Joseph and Chris first entered the Stauf mansion. It seemed that they had discovered more about the house than they could ever possibly imagine. There was one more room they needed to visit, though, to learn the ultimate secret of Stauf. Joseph and Chris entered the attic, and a spiritual force dragged them to the center of the room the instant they opened the door. Instantly, Joseph and Chris did not feel comfortable in the attic. Then, Stauf appeared in a wheelchair. He opened his mouth wide, and swallowed them whole!

Joseph shot up and yelled, "**AAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!**" Joseph looked around and saw his digital clock. It was 1:00 in the morning. Joseph looked in the closet, and discovered the book lying open on the shelf. He also felt a presence behind him, so he looked away from the closet, and looked in the mirror across from his bed. A clear, enlarged face of Stauf appeared on the mirror.

It boomed, "STAY AWAY FROM MY HOUSE!" Then, the apparition disappeared.

"I never opened that book at night," Joseph expressed in disbelief. Joseph closed the book and turned the shelf around. "That must have been giving me nightmares," decided Joseph. That was the last thing Joseph said for the rest of the night.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Joseph woke up to the sounds and aromas of pancakes being made by his father in the kitchen. Joseph loved pancakes, so they were his favorite breakfast. Joseph looked at his clock. The big glowing green digital numbers showed that it was 9:00 in the morning. Joseph had decided to look in the closet again to see if the book was open. All night long, Joseph had dreams about what might happen in the house. He believed that if the book were open, it would cause him to dream about the Stauf house. Joseph pulled the sheets off himself as he got out of bed. He stretched his back for a very long time. Then, he wandered into his closet to inspect the book. Sure enough, the book was open.

"This is supernatural!" Joseph exclaimed. "I never opened this book last night!" Joseph closed the book and turned the shelf around. Joseph got dressed in jean shorts and a gray Atlanta Braves T-shirt. He then went downstairs to eat breakfast. Joseph entered the kitchen and saw that his mother was already seated at the table. Joseph's father was by the counter cooking pancakes. Joseph sat down across from his mother. "Okay, here come Joseph's pancakes," Joseph's overweight father said. He put two pancakes on Joseph's plate. Joseph buttered his pancakes and then began to eat.

Joseph was eating his pancakes very slowly and thinking a lot more. He was still making decisions about whether he should go or not. He had very strange dreams the night before about the same thing, and the book was open all night long. Could they be visions of the future? Finally, Joseph decided to solve they mystery. After all, the mystery had not been solved for nearly 70 years. Joseph finally finished his breakfast, and then he brushed his teeth. After brushing his teeth, Joseph told his parents what Chris and he planned to do.

"I don't know," his mother wondered warily. "There have always been mysterious happenings in that house. Not many people have ever made it out alive."

"She's right," Joseph's father said. "It's best not to go in. After all, it is said that there were a few murders there."

"Everyone **says**," Joseph emphasized. "No one knows the real story, so I'm going," he said.

"Suit yourself," Joseph's mom replied.

Joseph went to his room, and he grabbed a dictionary and the book about Stauf. He even gathered old newspapers he borrowed from the house. In addition, he collected clothes and other basic essentials. He even brought along a camera, Doritos potato chips, and a large, dark green sleeping bag. Joseph also packed some bacon. He also found one of his inventions, which was a folding bed. In its compact form, the bed was as small as a suitcase. However, once opened, it was the size of an average double bed. He packed some red video phones that he built for communication. Joseph packed everything in a large brown cardboard box and taped it shut. Joseph walked over to his nightstand and picked up a cell phone. His parents could call him with it in case they were worried. Joseph put the cell phone in his right pants pocket, and then, he brought the box downstairs. Then, Joseph went to the garage, and he strapped the box on his metallic blue bike. Joseph got on his bike and pedaled to Chris's house. Joseph and Chris practically lived next to each other, but the way for them to move from one place to the other was to take Seay Road, the road that went through all the subdivisions in that area. Joseph parked his bike by the driveway of where Chris lived and then went down the driveway. Chris lived behind a thick patch of trees, and the driveway was long and sloped downward and then sloped upward.

Joseph parked his bike by Chris's garage and then walked right to the sidewalk. Joseph then walked up the steps at the end of the sidewalk and entered the porch. The porch was large and had several pieces of outdoor furniture. There was an awning over the porch, so the furniture was well protected from rain. Joseph knocked at the door, and Chris answered the door.

"Are you ready?" Joseph asked.

"Yeah," responded Chris. "I'll bet you're too scared to go in," he taunted. "If you go in that house without one scream or yell for help or anything else, I'll reward you $50!" he bribed. Chris pointed to his right pants pocket. It was stuffed with cash.

Chris was prepared too. He had an orange backpack full of things. Chris thought that they could be in the house for a few days, so he had his mom call Joseph's mom. Joseph could hear the phone inside. Chris's mom was calling Joseph's mom.

Chris walked off the porch and into his garage, and then Joseph closed the front door. Joseph ran off the porch and went up the driveway and got his bike. Chris joined him on his gold bike too. The two of them biked to the Stauf house. On the way, Chris commented, "Joseph, last night I had this weird dream that we went in that house and got eaten near the end."

"I had that same dream," remarked Joseph.

"Something tells me that house really isn't safe," Chris stated. "Why don't we turn back?"

"NEVER!" exclaimed Joseph. "I want to check the place out in more detail. I never have explored that house too much." It was a very cheerful, sunny day. Many people were out fishing, riding bikes, walking, hanging out, and doing other activities. Joseph and Chris biked passed Joseph's house, and then they continued traveling straight. Then, they came to a three-way intersection. There was a road named McBride Trail on the left that intersected with Greenfield Circle. They stopped their bikes for a moment to check for cars. When it was certain that no cars from McBride Trail were turning onto Greenfield Circle, the boys continued to bike. The road sloped downward and curved right a little bit.

When the road leveled off a little bit more and was straighter, Joseph and Chris stopped their bikes for a moment. To the left were the woods, where the Stauf house was located. To the right was the lake that was on the property of many people, including Joseph's. Straight ahead, the road sloped upward and curved right. Joseph and Chris looked at each other.

"Well, here goes," Joseph said. The boys turned left, entering a niche in the woods. After they passed the brush of woods, they saw the Stauf house. It was sitting high on a hill that was not very wide, and the only easiest way to get there was to travel on a narrow path that was elevated high above the ground below the hill. Below the hill, there was a huge plain that stretched out for miles and miles. At the edges of the plains, there were trees. However, farther north, there was much more plains and at the end, there were even some very high hills.

The Stauf property was very gloomy, and there was hardly any sunlight shining on the area. Joseph and Chris looked up at the sky. It seemed that a thunderstorm was about to start. As the boys continued riding up the long, winding path, they looked at the Stauf mansion. It looked like it were about three stories high, and it had a Victorian construction style. The house was dilapidated, as bricks had fallen out of the main chimney, shutters had fallen off their hinges, and some of the boards looked like they could fall off any minute.

Joseph and Chris came to the end of the path and were now atop the hill where the Stauf house sat. There wasn't much room for the boys to park their bikes because the house took up practically the entire space on the hill.

Joseph and Chris gazed at the house. It had a large front porch, a tall chimney, many windows, and there was somewhat of a balcony on the second floor. The house looked like it was 100 years old, and there was a mysterious window near the top of the house that seemed to glow green-blue.

Joseph and Chris started to approach the house, when an old man about 70 years old walked up some stairs made of dirt that Joseph and Chris didn't notice before. The stairs were carved into the side of the hill, and it seemed to be a way to easily access the plains below the hill. At last, the man came into Joseph and Chris's view. He stood in front of them, his arms waving as a danger sign. "DON'T GO INTO THAT HOUSE!" he yelled slightly in his raspy voice. "When I was 20 years old, I left my parents to live on my own. I didn't get married, which would allow me to have more money to myself. I searched for the nicest house I could find, and then I found this mansion. No one really knew it was haunted because the house became in a state of disrepair since 1931. Nobody had lived in it since Stauf had mysteriously vanished within the compounds of the mansion. Anyway, the house wasn't for sale, but it looked like no one was using it. I went inside and checked it out. The instant I went in there, I felt a very unwelcoming presence. I finally decided to move in, and when I did, I only did for a month. I was so scared! There were so many startling events, such as extremely fast door slams, strange feelings, and sights at night, apparitions, and more things, some even scarier than what I talked about! When I got so scared I didn't know what to expect, I moved out and built a small cabin just below the hill," the old man told the boys. "So don't go in," he begged.

"We understand," Joseph acknowledged. "But our purpose is to try to find out **why** all of this is happening. Would you like your house back if the ghosts were gone?" asked Joseph.

"Very much! Unlike my cabin, it is beautiful, very large, and comfortable," the old man answered.

"Well, maybe we can get the ghosts removed, then you can move back in," Joseph stated.

"Thank you two," the old man thanked.

"No problem," Joseph said.

The old man hobbled right to descend down the dirt stairs he carved into the hill, and then Joseph and Chris dropped their bikes and got their things they took with them. They walked up the steps and got onto the large porch with an awning. Then, they opened the stained glass door that served as the front door. A spinning red and white spiral with Stauf's head in the center appeared. Stauf's head gave Joseph and Chris an evil look. The next thing Joseph and Chris knew, they were looking through a book of photographs in the library of the house. They showed Stauf's life. Many of the pictures showed some of the first Stauf toys that Stauf built. The pictures also showed pictures of Stauf's store called Wonderworld and Toys. In addition, there were photographs of some of the guests that were invited to his house. Joseph and Chris reached the end of the photograph book, and they shut it. Before Joseph and Chris could say anything, an invisible force grabbed complete control of the boys' voluntary muscles. They couldn't utter a word or move one bit. The force lifted them about 5 inches off the ground, and the boys floated forward toward the library door. The force stopped the boys from moving temporarily. The library door swung open by itself, and the boys floated through the door once it had fully opened.

The boys enjoyed the experience of floating in the air, although they feared this strong, controlling force would take them to a place they would regret going to. The boys passed through an alcove and flew by the grand staircase in the center of the room. The uncontrollable force stopped Joseph and Chris in front of the stained glass door they had opened several minutes back. Joseph and Chris still could not move.

The boys were scared out of their wits, but they couldn't scream or run for help, as the invisible force still had a firm grip on their muscles. Joseph and Chris wondered why they were moved in front of the stained glass door. A chill went down their spines when a ghostly apparition faded in front of the stained glass door.

This was the ghost of one of the six invited guests. The ghost's name was Martine Burden. She made a comment about the house and then vanished. Joseph and Chris got even more nervous when two more ghosts appeared in front of the door. The ghosts that appeared were married. They were Edward and Elinor Knox. They walked past Joseph and Chris and slowly faded into the darkness. Another ghost appeared near the door. This was the ghost of Julia Heine.

She scoffed and said, "I'd expect more things from Stauf." Then she walked off and faded away. Another ghost appeared. This was the ghost of Brian Dutton.

"Goodness, it smells awful, too!" exclaimed Dutton. "What's Stauf been doing here?"

He faded away, and another ghost appeared. This ghost was wearing a robe and something on his head. This was the ghost of Hamilton Temple. He looked around the foyer for a moment, and then he walked off into the darkness.

Joseph and Chris got even more nervous when the force turned them away from the door. They were turned 180 degrees, and they found themselves facing the grand staircase. Both wondered what would happen next. The force still had a firm grip on them.

Suddenly, the strong force released both Joseph and Chris. This was their chance to run out of the Stauf manor before anything else weird happened. However, Joseph and Chris had no idea what had just happened. They looked around the foyer, not certain what building it was. The boys didn't even remember anything about The 7th Guest.

"Where are we?" pondered Joseph, "and how did we get here?"

"I don't know," Chris replied. "I don't even remember coming here!"

"And just who are those ghosts we saw? And who's Stauf?" Joseph wondered.

"Let's explore these rooms," suggested Chris. Chris walked to the left, and Joseph followed crouching behind.

"Will you stop?" Chris asked sounding annoyed.

"You don't know what to expect in this place," Joseph shivered. "It's dark."

Right now, the boys were in an alcove to the left of the grand staircase. The grand staircase had many little blue steps leading up to the second floor. The foyer also had a lamp on each post at the foot of the stairs. The lamps on the two posts were the primary source of light for the foyer. Everything around the foot of the stairs was well lit. Everything else in the foyer was dark. The grand staircase defined the area of the two alcoves in the foyer. There was a left alcove and a right alcove. Both alcoves were very dark. In the left alcove, there were double doors located on the leftmost wall of the alcove. Also, there was a regular door that was in the back wall of the alcove. Next to the staircase, there was a grandfather clock and a table. In the right alcove, there were double doors and a single door, both on different walls. There was desk of some sort next to the staircase.

Overall, the foyer was very big. One could say it was nearly 20 feet high and possibly 30 to 40 feet wide. It had a floor with brown and pale yellow tiles. In the alcoves, however, the tiles looked light blue and dark blue. Many pictures hung all over the walls. Near the left alcove, there was a coffee table and some old couches that were placed in the corner.

Joseph and Chris walked up to the door in the back of the left alcove. Joseph tried to turn the knob, but the door was locked. Joseph felt something wasn't right. He felt something very odd was happening to his right.

"Chris, I feel some weird presence over there," Joseph remarked. Chris and Joseph both looked to the right. There was the old grandfather clock.

"What a dummy. Being afraid of an old grandfather clock," Chris muttered. Chris was about to turn around, but then, he too noticed something odd about the clock. He felt something wasn't quite right about it. Joseph and Chris walked closer to it, and they realized what was unusual about it. Something was moving very quickly! With closer inspection, Joseph and Chris realized that there was a tool on the face of the clock. It revealed a disk inside the clock. They discovered that this was the moon phase dial of the grandfather clock. The dial was rotating very quickly. As a matter of fact, it was spinning much faster than it really should have been.

Joseph and Chris grew strange expressions on their faces and crept away from the grandfather clock. The boys turned around and faced the double doors. Chris walked to the double doors and opened them, while Joseph crouched cowardly behind. The boys slowly wandered into the room.

Before them stood a dining room. The dining room was very bright, and in the center of the room was a long table. Several chairs were lined along the sides of the table. The boys noticed that the tables had a spider web design on the backs of the chairs.

Joseph and Chris walked deeper into the room. They turned and faced the long part of the table. On the table, there were six plates set, and there were forks and knives next to the plates as well. In the center of the table, there was a chocolate cake with pale green icing. What was bizarre about the cake was that it had symbols of skulls and graves in the cake. Suddenly, Joseph and Chris saw a ghostly drama. The ghosts were the same ones the boys had seen entering the house. They seemed to be arguing about how to arrange the cake pieces so that they were exactly the same. After about a minute or so, the ghosts faded, and Joseph and Chris were alone once again.

The same supernatural force that dragged Joseph and Chris around the house brought them closer to the cake. "It looks like we are supposed to solve something," Chris said.

"It makes me wonder. Let's try it out," Joseph said. "From what the ghosts were talking about, it seems that we might have to arrange this cake for them. We must arrange it so that each ghost gets exactly the same thing." Chris put all the pieces of blank cake on one plate and all the gravestones on one plate. He put all the skulls on another plate. "The rest don't have anything," Joseph said. Mysteriously, all the pieces went back where they had come from, and a black holographic outline of the house appeared while that was happening.

"That was strange," Chris said.

"Here, let me try. I'll put one of each on every plate." Joseph put a single blank piece of cake on each plate, then put two skull pieces on each plate, and put two gravestone pieces on every plate.

The cake pieces were moved back where they came from again, but this time, the supernatural force moved Joseph and Chris away from the cake. "We must have done it right," Chris said. They then saw another ghostly drama, where Martine Burden was trying to flirt with Edward Knox. Edward seemed uneasy about her flirting, though. Then, they disappeared, and a loud screech was heard upstairs. Joseph and Chris jumped back and gasped in shock.

"This place is really strange," Chris said. Joseph and Chris left the dining room, and went back into the foyer. They walked over to the stained glass door, intending to leave the mansion. However, they saw a ghostly drama that took place right in front of the door. Brian Dutton stood in front of the door, and he read a note from Stauf. Stauf's note informed him that if he survived the night in the house, then he would get his heart's most desired wish granted.

When the drama ended, Joseph said, "Maybe there's some sort of connection here. Perhaps these ghosts are staying here in order to obtain some type of reward. But I'm still puzzled as to the deity known as Stauf. Oh well, I suppose we'll learn more later."

Joseph and Chris gazed up at the stained glass door. Chris touched a circle, and then a spider appeared. Joseph and Chris touched many circles, experimenting until they got everything right. They weren't sure what to do, so they just experimented with circles, not knowing what would happen.

"There's got to be some sort of book around here that would help us out with this weird stuff," Joseph said.

"Why not check out the library?" Chris suggested. The two boys slowly walked toward the right side of the room, retracing their steps from the library to where they saw the ghosts come in.

They opened a single door, and found the library. "Chris, you look on the wall in front of the sofa, I'll look on the side beside it," Joseph said. The side Joseph checked was long, and led to nearly the end of the library. Chris's side was connected to Joseph's, and stretched all the way to the door, which wasn't very far. They looked at the spines of the book, and decided whether it would help them or not. Sometimes they even pulled the book out, and read some parts of it just to make sure. They checked all the books, and when they finished, they met in front of the red sofa to discuss what they had found.

"I didn't find a single book that would help us," Chris said.

"Neither did me," Joseph said. "The ones I found were only classic novels." Just then, a small, orange-brown book caught their attention. It was sitting on the coffee table in front of the sofa. "We never checked this one," Joseph said.

"Let's," Chris said. Joseph opened the book, and he saw that there were tips given. The first one said, "**Seven spiders weave an eight-sided web leaving one point vacant for the hopeless victim.**" The next one said, "**Select both a starting and a destination point along the same straight line for the spider to build his strand of the starweb.**" Suddenly, without anyone opening the book, the page turned, and showed a pop-up doorway on a brick wall. Joseph and Chris were pulled through and ended up facing the stairway. They turned around and saw the stained glass door.

"Now I understand how it works," Joseph said.

"Me too," Chris said. Chris and Joseph started experimenting with it, and eventually solved it. Their point 1 was at the top of the star. The other numbered points on the star followed in a clockwise direction. They figured that the pattern was 1-6, 4-1, 8-3, 5-8, 2-5, 7-4, and 7-2.

They were magically pulled away from the door, and then they saw a short drama about a small boy trying to get through the stained glass door. He was wearing white clothes, and he looked about thirteen years old. Unbeknownst to Joseph and Chris, this boy was named Tad Gorman. He was the seventh guest. After Tad's ghost disappeared, everything remained normal.

Joseph and Chris just happened to notice a box taped up and Chris's orange backpack sitting next to the stained glass door. They did not remember that they brought these things with them to the mansion. "Hey, what's this?" wondered Joseph, going to the box. He opened it and found many different things. Inside were a dictionary, newspapers, clothes, a Polaroid camera, bacon, and Doritos potato chips. There were other things inside as well. He even saw the suitcase sized portable bed. "Well take a look here, Chris. Here's a whole box full of basic essentials," Joseph said. "I even see some of my inventions. I wonder why they suddenly appeared here."

"Yeah, that's weird. Also, my backpack is here. I wonder what's in it," Chris said. Joseph opened the orange backpack, and discovered that there were many similar things. The book Moby Dick was even inside.

"There's nothing much different in your backpack," informed Joseph.

"Let's check the double doors by the library to see if they are unlocked," Chris said. The two boys walked over, and tried to open the door. It was locked.

"Let's see if the locked door is now accessible," Joseph said. "Maybe whatever caused the door to stay stuck is now gone," he continued.

They walked away from the right section of the house, and went to the left. They tried the single door again. It opened. "Maybe when we solve these random puzzles, magic opens doors," Chris said. They entered the room. It was a small kitchen. There was a stove on the right, on the left, a sink, cabinets, a freezer, and a door leading outside. On the back wall there was an old fashioned telephone, and a pantry door that looked like a barn door.

Then, they saw two dramas. One was about Elinor Knox, who was standing by the stove, reading another mysterious note from Stauf. There was another drama about Julia Heine, who was trying to organize the pantry, but she was not satisfied by the way she was doing it. "I think we have to do something in the pantry," Chris hinted. They approached the pantry. Chris opened the doors, and then they both saw nothing but tin cans. They had different letters with some having the same, but others were different. They had different colors, and letter sizes.

"I have no idea what to do here," Chris said.

"Let's check the book of clues," Joseph said. Both boys rushed out of the kitchen, and went into the library. They checked the book of clues. The first tip said, "**Rearrange the cans on the shelves so that the lettered labels form a sentence.**" The second one said, "**Bashful, nomad, craftily, agilely meet secretly near my underground vault.**"

"We have to arrange **that**!" Joseph said. "There aren't enough cans and letters!"

"I think we have to arrange the cans to make words that mean the same as these, and I think I know what they are," Chris said.

The boys left the library, and this time they both understood the puzzle. Joseph and Chris went to Chris's backpack and the box that were by the stained glass door. "I thought I remember seeing my dictionary in that box," Joseph said. Joseph looked through the box to see if there were any reference books. He then found his dictionary that he packed before arriving at the Stauf house. "I was right. My dictionary was in here," Joseph said. Joseph and Chris looked up the words that were in the clue book. Chris wrote synonyms down on a yellow piece of paper he had in his backpack. The words were "shy", "gypsy", "slyly", "spryly", "tryst", "by", "my", and "crypt". Once the boys were finished gathering potential answers, Joseph put away his dictionary.

Chris started to head toward the kitchen with the sheet, but Joseph called him back for a moment. "Let's take your backpack and box with us. We're probably going to need them some more," Joseph said. Chris strapped on his backpack, and Joseph picked up his box. Then, the boys went back to the kitchen. They opened the pantry door, and they looked at the letters. Chris moved the cans around to see if they would work. They worked! Suddenly, all of Chris and Joseph's work had been messed up. All of the cans were arranged the way they were before. The boys saw Julia Heine saying, "There! Now I've solved it!"

The next thing they knew, they were out in the kitchen again. They turned right, and they saw a brown door. The boys discovered that it was unlocked! They boys opened the door up, and then they found themselves in a cellar, which was actually a stone maze. They weren't in there yet, but they could see the maze through an open space at the bottom. There was a large stone that blocked the way into the maze, but there was a section on the right side that was a passageway. There were 5 gray metal grates at the bottom. Two of the grates had some parts cut out, forming a curved shape; one had a convex curve, and the other had a concave curve.

"I think I know what we should do here," Chris responded to Joseph. "It's just common sense." Then, Joseph set down his box. He moved the grates around so that the two grates with curves were in front of the passageway. This formed a circular opening when the two grates were put together correctly.

Finally, Joseph grabbed his box and pushed it through the space. Then, Joseph and Chris crouched down and crawled through the space. Then, they got back up, and Joseph picked up his box. Then, the boys walked down the hall slowly. "Chris, I am suspecting that there is something strange down this hall that is going to scare us. **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!**" Joseph yelled. Just then, a woman ghost in a white gown appeared. She beckoned them forward. It was so startling that the two boys trembled, watching the ghost giving the same motions, until she disappeared into the dark hall.

"We'll probably be scared out of our wits in the whole house," Chris said. The boys then walked forward until they came to an intersection. One direction was forward, while another was left.

"Which way should we go?" Chris wondered.

"Split up," Joseph said.

"But we don't know what to expect in these halls. We'll be all alone; it will be worse," Chris said cowardly.

"I think I saw my video phones in the box earlier," Joseph said. He opened up the box, and he rummaged through the box. Sure enough, he found them. Joseph pulled two red phones out of his box that he carried along. They had little television screens on them, and they had 16 silver buttons. They were used to call a phone number. There were tiny cameras on the top front of the phone, and near the bottom, there was a microphone, and speaker. Joseph had phone number 1. Then, Joseph handed Chris number 2. "All you have to do is press the number of the other person's number, and then, you can see and communicate with them," Joseph said.

"Where did you have the money to afford **these**?" Chris said. "They must have cost a fortune."

"Oh no, I built them," Joseph said.

"I guess you really are a genius," Chris admitted.

The two boys turned on their phones. Chris zipped his backpack up, and Joseph shut his box. Chris strapped on his backpack, and Joseph picked up his box. The boys then split up. Chris went straight, and Joseph went left. Chris pushed button #1, and Joseph pressed button #2. On both phones, each other's pictures appeared on the screens. "Show me where you are going," Chris said to Joseph.

"Do the same with you," Joseph said. Then, the two boys held their phones in front of them as both boys wandered the maze. When either of the boys discovered that they ran into a dead end, they would go back to the previous intersection they entered, and they would try walking another way.

Chris was walking down a hall, when he suddenly heard footsteps coming his way on the other corner of his hallway. Joseph was walking too, and he heard the same thing coming his way on the other side. Joseph and Chris told each other the news on their phones. Both of them stayed clutched to a wall, and walked towards the next section very slowly. Suddenly, something bumped them.

_**BUMP**_

They were awfully surprised when they realized who bumped into them.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Joseph and Chris both turned at the three-way intersection to see who bumped into them. They were looking into each other's worried faces. It was a big relief to them that it was not a ghost or zombie that had been stalking them in the halls.

"Chris!" Joseph said shocked.

"Joseph!" Chris said in the same manner.

"So that's what caused the extra footsteps…each other!" Joseph said.

"Imagine that!" Chris said.

"Anyway, I've checked all of the places down my hallway, and found no destination point," Joseph said turning off his phone.

"Me too," Chris said as he also turned his phone off.

"The only place left in the hall is the hall right in front of me," Joseph said. Joseph was standing right across from it, and it was right from Chris's viewpoint.

"I haven't checked it out either," Chris said. "It might lead to our destination…if there even is one." They both headed toward the hall, and then began walking through it. They had to turn many times, but finally reached their destination point.

Joseph and Chris found themselves looking over a large crypt. There was a stone railing in front of the boys. To the left, there was a spiral staircase that went down to the crypt floor. On the back and right walls, there were arches. Joseph and Chris saw 9 coffins about 15 feet below the stone railing. Some of the coffins opened. "I think we need to close these coffins," Chris said. Joseph set his box down and unzipped Chris's backpack and borrowed a yellow piece of paper from Chris and took a small pencil. Chris ran down the spiral stairs to the crypt floor and closed and opened the coffins. Meanwhile, Joseph took notes on which coffins controlled another. When Joseph finished taking notes, Chris came back up and took the notes and pencil from Joseph. He looked at the coffins. He thought about what coffin to open or close so that they could all eventually be closed.

Finally, after 1 hour of closing and opening coffins, the boys closed all the coffins. "Finally, we solved this puzzle!" Chris said. Chris put the notes and pencil in his backpack and zipped it shut.

"I'll come down and look at the coffins real fast," Joseph said. Joseph picked up his box, and he walked down the spiral stairs and went down to the stone floor of the crypt. Suddenly, to Joseph and Chris's shock, four ghosts appeared in front of them. They were the ghosts of Burden, Mr. Knox, Tad, and Temple. Temple was trying to save Tad from being strangled by Mr. Knox. Temple broke Mr. Knox's neck, and then, Mr. Knox fell unconsciously to the floor. Then, for some reason, Burden's face turned green, and she grew a long, lizard-like tongue. Her face grew into a large cube shape. Temple tried to reassure Tad that it was just an allusion, but Tad ran off in fear. The ghosts soon disappeared.

"How do we get out of here?" wondered Joseph. "Surely there must be a faster way out of the crypt than traveling back through the maze."

"The areas inside the arches seem rather dark," Chris commented. "I wonder if there's anything hidden inside." The boys looked around in the arches to see if anything was inside. However, there were just stone walls behind the arches.

"Darn," Chris said. "There's got to be a way out."

Joseph and Chris then began to randomly search the coffins. Chris happened to open the coffin closest to the spiral stairs. "Joseph, look! There's a passageway in this coffin!" said Chris. "Let's go through!" Joseph and Chris climbed into the coffin, and they were instantly zapped to the library. They were both happy that they had finally left the dark, cold, and frustrating maze.

"You know, Chris," Joseph said at once, "I have a feeling that there is something in here that we are supposed to do."

"I think so, too," Chris said. "We haven't explored the back area of the library," he continued. Joseph and Chris moved forward to the back of the room.

They discovered a telescope at the back, and saw the bay window inflate like wind was blowing at it from the outside. The back of the room was interesting. Behind the sofa, there was a section of the library that had been jutted out into the house. There was a hidden door that was locked. There was also a fireplace on the right side. The telescope in the very back, located in front of the bay window was black, and had gold trimmings. Joseph set his box down, and he looked through the telescope through his right eye. Then, he moved over to let Chris look through with his left eye.

Joseph and Chris assumed there was a puzzle to solve. They saw Mars through the telescope, and then, they began seeing words appear on the planet. A strange voice they heard gave them directions on what to do. Joseph and Chris spent about ten minutes on the puzzle. Eventually, they spelled the sentence "there is no possible way".

Then, Joseph and Chris turned to their left. Suddenly, they saw the ghostly head of Stauf. A strange voice narrated a strange poem.

"Old Man" Stauf built a house

And filled it with his toys

Six guests were invited one night

Their screams the only noise

Blood inside the library

Blood right up the wall

Dripping down the attic stairs

Hey, guests, try not to fall

Nobody came out that night

Not one was ever seen

"Old Man" Stauf is waiting there

Crazy, sick…and mean!

When the drama ended, Joseph and Chris began talking to each other again. "That was freaky. Is it just me, or do I think that there's more to this Stauf guy than we realize?" Chris wondered.

"Well, from what we've seen so far, this looks like the interior of a house. We've solved a bunch of puzzles, and puzzles are somewhat like toys. Perhaps this is the house that Stauf guy built," Joseph said. "It sounds like Stauf may be an evil entity as well. Also, I think some of those ghosts we've seen may be the six guests that were mentioned in that poem," Joseph said. "For now, let's just keep exploring. Then, maybe we'll know more about these ghosts. Maybe we're supposed to defeat Stauf or something," Joseph said. Suddenly, a door slammed and opened faster than light-speed, books began falling off the shelves rapidly, and flying around, the sofa lifted off the ground, and a fire started in the fireplace. Eventually, the only change was that the books began orbiting around the sofa. It wasn't so scary now, but it was still unbelievable. Joseph and Chris ducked and closed their eyes, but just as they did that, everything stopped and returned normal Joseph and Chris got back up and opened their eyes when they no longer heard noise.

"You and your big mouth," Chris said.

"Well, at least were sa…" Joseph started to say, but Chris covered his mouth so he wouldn't get them in trouble again. Still, the door slammed. Joseph tried to open the door, but it was locked. "Now how are we going to get out?" he moaned. Chris was using his shoe to stomp out the cinders in the fireplace, when he accidentally kicked open a secret door in the fireplace. Joseph looked over, and he and Chris smiled in delight. "Chris, you're a genius!" Joseph exclaimed. He ran over to the telescope and picked up his box.

"I thought you were," Chris said.

"We both are, now let's get out of here," Joseph said, guiding Chris through the entrance. When they entered their destination, they realized that it did not lead them anywhere familiar downstairs. Joseph and Chris walked out of the hall they were in, and went to a main hall.

"This hall is awfully dark," Chris said. Then, he and Joseph turned left and began to move forward when a ghost appeared. It was the same ghost that was spotted in the basement. She still beckoned the boys to go forward. The ghost slowly faded as she floated farther back into the hall.

"Y-you first, Chris," Joseph stuttered.

"ME!" he exclaimed. "Why ME?"

"Because, because, you're braver and stronger," Joseph said. Chris and Joseph stepped forward, but they did not see the female ghost again. They walked forward again, and this time they noticed some stairs to their right. They looked down the stairs, and they saw the foyer. The boys looked back at the hall in front of them. Suddenly, two ghosts were running. One of them, Tad, seemed to be chased by Temple. They faded away when they got close to Joseph and Chris.

"Isn't that the same boy we saw downstairs?" Chris asked.

"It looks like him," Joseph said. "And I think we saw that other man downstairs as well."

"Now that we've discovered that we are upstairs, why don't we look in the other rooms and see what's there?" Chris suggested. Joseph nodded his head in agreement, and then, the two boys began checking one part of the upstairs. Four doors were unlocked, so they tried to solve the puzzles inside.

The first room they went into was a game room. The game room door was at the back of the right side of the hall. It was a large room with many tables. In the center was a pool table, and a chessboard was positioned on a table to the left. In the back, there was a fireplace that was bricked up and no longer in use.

Suddenly, Temple faded into the game room. He claimed that he wanted to have Stauf's power. He looked over at the chessboard. He seemed to think that he could receive Stauf's power from the board. After Temple faded away, they saw another apparition. He was a clown selling balloons. Joseph and Chris looked at the clown. "Want a balloon, sonny?" he asked the boys. "Here's a nice one." The boys looked at the clown in an odd way. "RED BALLOON!" the clown said with a dramatically altered voice. Then he began laughing hysterically and slowly disappeared.

"That magician man was looking at that chessboard over there. I wonder if it could be another one of these weird puzzles," wondered Joseph.

"Let's find out," Chris said. The two boys approached the chessboard. Joseph set down his box so that he could have both hands free for the puzzle. An apparition voice suddenly spoke to them and told them the object of the game. Joseph and Chris were very spooked by this, and they were very startled when they heard the voice. The object of the game was to have 8 queens be on the board and not have one come in direct contact with another. The puzzle was easy. It took a while to figure out, but finally, Joseph and Chris solved it.

Joseph picked up his box, and then, he and Chris left the chessboard. Then, they saw Temple and Tad fade into the room again. Temple was angry because the chessboard did not hold Stauf's power as he thought. He saw Tad, and he told him that he knew that he was the seventh guest. He begged him to follow him, but Tad didn't listen to him and ran away. The ghosts disappeared shortly afterward.

Joseph and Chris left the room and opened the door left of the game room door. There was a medium-sized bedroom with a cool color scheme. Most of the colors were gray, green, and gray-blue. The room had many black-and-white photographs on the walls. There was a four-poster bed in the back of the room, and there was a white vanity dresser with a mirror. On the front, right corner of the room, there was a red chair. In front of the bed, there was a nice looking rug.

The boys suddenly saw Julia Heine. By now, the boys were so used to seeing spirits every time they entered a room that it didn't really scare them much anymore. Heine danced across the room in a green nightgown and said that she loved the room. Then, she danced up to the mirror and faded away. Suddenly, the same supernatural force that occasionally dragged the boys around the house held the boys. It pulled them up to the mirror, and they saw the rest of the ghostly drama. Heine said that she wanted to be young again. Joseph and Chris could see why, as she had several noticeable wrinkles and graying blonde hair. She appeared to be about 50 or 60 years old. However, her apparition faded away briefly. When it reappeared, she was suddenly young again. At first, she had completely blonde hair and looked much younger. She appeared to look about 20 or 30 years old. The supernatural force moved Joseph and Chris back to the original place where they stood. The supernatural force seemed to let them go, and the boys watched the rest of the ghostly drama. They saw Heine as a baby. She was getting much younger than she wanted to be. The apparition faded away. Then, Joseph and Chris looked at each other. "Weird," Chris said.

"I think there's a puzzle on the rug," Joseph said. Joseph pointed to the rug, and Chris looked. There was a human heart on the rug that had appeared when the boys realized that there was a puzzle on the rug. Hooked up to the heart were many arteries with switches inside. The arteries tops were chopped on the top so that one could see the path where the blood would travel. They also heard music with a medical tune to it.

Joseph and Chris walked over, and they knelt in front of the rug. Joseph set his box on the ground. Joseph and Chris both examined the puzzle. "This looks easy," Chris said. Chris and Joseph looked at the puzzle and imagined blood traveling through. That helped them find out what switches to turn, and which ones not to disturb. They eventually made a path from the heart to the end of one of the arteries. Joseph touched the heart, and blood traveled through the arteries. At the end of an artery, the blood spilled on to the rug, leaving some places uncovered, which spelled out "you win".

The heart, blood, and arteries disappeared, and then, Joseph picked up his box, Chris and he got up, and saw another ghostly drama. Temple was trying to tell Tad to go with him, but Tad didn't trust him. Hamilton Temple and Tad disappeared. Later, Heine and Temple appeared, and Heine enjoyed herself as she strangled Temple.

Joseph and Chris left the room, and closed the door. They walked across the hall, which wasn't very far. They tried opening the door across from the room they had just visited. To the boys' dismay, it was locked. Joseph and Chris then decided to go downstairs to see if the double doors had been unlocked. They walked down the hall, turned left, and walked down the long blue stairs. The stairs curved a little bit, and had thick, fancy railings connected to the stairs. At last, they made it downstairs. They walked over to where the double doors were, and tried opening them. They were still locked. Angry that they walked down long stairs for nothing, both boys headed back up the stairs. Just as they were reaching the top of the stairs and about to make it upstairs, two hands popped out of a painting that hung on the wall in front of them. The painting had a forest landscape, so it seemed unlikely that such a painting would have hands stretch through the canvas.

It was so startling that Joseph and Chris tumbled down the stairs screaming and yelling the instant it started. "L-lets stay down here!" Joseph said in a scared way.

"I'm with you!" Chris said in the same manner. Joseph looked at his watch. It was 3:15 pm.

"For another hour, why don't we stay down here?" suggested Joseph.

"Fine with me," Chris said. Then, the boys remained downstairs in the foyer for the remaining hour. They were scared of the incident that occurred. It seemed that the house was much more innocent to them. The only thing bizarre about it was how it was so dark and lonely. The ghosts seemed playful and harmless. However, seeing the hands stretch out of the painting was something that really scared the boys. For the first time upon arriving the house, they were really, genuinely scared.


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

_An hour later, Joseph and Chris were getting over their fears, and they thought that the energy in the painting was gone. They gathered their courage and went back upstairs. This time, they crawled on the stairs. When they approached the top, they both looked at the painting in front of the stairs. At the moment, nothing happened. They slowly rose from the stairs. Joseph walked over to his box and picked it up. Apparently, he'd dropped it when he tumbled down the stairs. Joseph and Chris went left from the stairs. They turned around left in front of a door right next to the stairs. They checked to see if it was unlocked. They discovered they could enter the room. They opened it, and they saw another bedroom. It was small and dark. The bed had purple and pink bed sheets, and most of the other furniture in the room was stained brown._

_A strange sight came into view. The room began to twist and twirl out of its shape, and then, it quickly returned to its normal appearance. Joseph and Chris felt energy over the bed, so they decided to walk over. They saw a puzzle coming into view. It was like a board game that involved following a path to spell out a phrase. Chris and Joseph solved the word puzzle in 15 minutes. The game spelled out the phrase "the sky is ruddy, your fate is bloody"._

_The puzzle disintegrated into the surface of the bed. Joseph and Chris walked away from the bed. Just after walking from the bed, they saw more spirits yet again. The spirits of Mr. Knox and Burden stood in front of the bed, and they acted as though they were going to engage in sexual activities. Burden told Mr. Knox that since she knew where the puzzles were located, they could win their reward after solving them all. Suddenly, Burden kissed Knox, and she wiggled off her jacket. This revealed a very attractive red dress that was almost revealing. Mr. Knox instantly was all over her, and he and Burden got on the bed and hugged each other to death. Then, the ghostly drama ended._

_Joseph and Chris left the room and went across the hall to another room. The room was large and had a four-poster bed to the right. Next to the bed by a nightstand, there was a brown rug with a maze design sewn on it. There was also a highboy, a dresser, and a fainting chair. To the left of the door, there was another door with a large mirror that covered the whole door. In the back of the room, there was another door. Across from the four-poster bed, there was a brick fireplace._

_Mrs. Knox suddenly appeared. She was sitting on the four-poster bed. She talked to herself and commented on the rug with the maze. She mentioned that she solved maze puzzles when she was a little girl. Mrs. Knox slowly faded away._

_Joseph and Chris walked over to the maze slowly and discovered that they had walked into another puzzle. The maze rug quickly slid off the position it was at, which caused Joseph and Chris to slide back with it. Then, chess bishops popped up from the floor. Joseph and Chris moved over to the bishops and knelt down. Chris took off his backpack, and Joseph set down his box so that he could use both of his hands._

"_I don't know much about chess bishops," Chris said._

"_Why don't we go to the clue book?" Joseph asked._

"_Great idea!" Chris said. Joseph and Chris left the puzzle, and turned around, and started heading for the door. Suddenly, in the mirror, they saw Mrs. Knox in strange clothes. It seemed that she was reciting a message that the boys could not understand. When the apparition disappeared, the boys headed out the door and ran down the hall. Then, they turned right and ran downstairs._

_They walked into the library. A yell was heard from the upstairs, and then, all of the guests appeared in the room mysteriously. The only one that was absent was Tad. The ghosts were all talking about solving puzzles and seemed concerned about what Stauf was doing. Temple suggested that everyone should play as a team, but nobody seemed to like his suggestion. Mr. Knox said that Stauf was watching them and scaring them, and that they should all play his "game". Then, all the apparitions except for Mrs. Knox vanished. Then, she too vanished with them._

_Joseph and Chris headed towards the clue book when the drama finished, and opened it. There were two clues in the book about it. The first one said, "**If my bishops cannot convert you, perhaps you can convert my bishops.**" The second one said, "**Use traditional bishop moves to exchange the positions of the white and black bishops. You cannot move into a square where you can be captured.**" Then, the page turned by itself again, and then, Joseph and Chris were taken through the door again. They returned to the room with the chess bishops puzzle._

"_I know a little about chess, so the clues and I can help us," Joseph said. Then, Joseph and Chris approached the puzzle again. They began moving the bishops, and the magical opponent moved its pieces. As they expected, the puzzle was very difficult and time consuming. Many times, they failed to make any good moves, so they had to start over again. The same holographic outline of the house appeared every time the boys reset the puzzle._

_Joseph and Chris had spent three hours on the puzzle. Still, they had not made much progress. At last, they decided to quit and go back to the library to see if there were any more clues that the clue book listed. They got up and ran to the library. They opened the clue book and saw the words, "**The puzzle is solved!**" Then, they were transported back to the Knoxs' room again._

_Joseph looked at his watch. It was 7:30 pm! "Well, Chris, I want to call it a night," Joseph said. "I'm tired of solving puzzles, I want to do some night activities."_

"_Like what?" Chris asked._

"_Well, you know, like reading, solving crossword puzzles, things like that."_

"_I'm going to read," Chris said._

"_I'm going to do a crossword puzzle, but where are we going to sleep?" Joseph wondered._

"_We'll both sleep in this room. It's the biggest one we've discovered." Chris said._

"_We can also use this room to store the things we brought with us at least temporarily. I'm tired of carrying this bulky box around," Joseph commented._

"_One of us will sleep in bed, and the other one will sleep on the floor in the sleeping bag," Chris said._

"_We don't have to," Joseph replied. Then, he opened his box, and he took out a mattress that was folded and had metal stands underneath. Joseph took out a square black remote control and pressed the red button in the center. The bed unfolded and fell to the floor. Then, four thin legs lifted the bed upward. Then, Joseph pressed one of the smaller red buttons on his control, and the bed got just as long as the four-poster bed in the room. Joseph pressed another button, and then, the bed turned into a four-poster bed. Joseph moved the bed next to the four-poster bed, closest to the door._

_Chris stared at the bed with his mouth wide open. "It's one of my latest inventions," Joseph said._

"_Well, now we have to decide who sleeps in what bed," Chris said._

"_I should sleep in my bed," Joseph said. "It's my bed, and I should take care of it."_

"_Then I'll sleep in the other bed," Chris said. Joseph and Chris set their possessions down, and got everything they needed out. Then, they each went out into the hall to change into their robes._

"_Chris, look and see if there's a bathroom," Joseph said._

"_But what if something scary happens when I'm alone?" Chris asked._

"_I'll make sure you're all right, Chris," Joseph said. "I'll go with you."_

_Joseph and Chris searched the halls for the bathroom. First, they tried to open the door right next to them. It was unlocked. Joseph and Chris opened the door slowly, while keeping their backs to the side of the wall. To their luck, the room was a bathroom._

_Chris looked in. "It's safe," he said. Joseph and Chris entered the room with the things they needed for the night. The bathroom was pretty average. It was small, and had a black and white tile floor. In the upper right corner, there was an old fashioned bathtub with a shade over it. Above the bathtub on the back wall was a small casement window. Next to the tub was an old fashioned sink. Over it, there was an oval mirror. On the lower part of the right wall, there was a toilet. The lights were on, just as they were in all the other rooms in the house._

_Suddenly, there was something that caught their attention. On the tiles on the floor, there was a chess knight puzzle. It had black and white knights in a 5 by 5 grid pattern. The black knights were near the bottom right corner, and the white knights were near the upper left corner. The center tile was empty. Apparently, the object of the puzzle was for the knights to switch sides._

"_Do we have to do another chess puzzle?" Joseph said angrily._

"_Why don't we try to solve it wisely? While I take a bath, you try to solve it, and while you take a bath, **I'll** try," Chris said._

"_OK," Joseph said._

_Chris took off his robe and got in the tub, and he began to take his bath. Joseph was hard at work solving the chess puzzle. When Chris got out of the tub, and put his robe back on, Joseph had solved the puzzle._

"_Great job!" Chris said. Suddenly, they saw Burden in the tub, who began to drown. Joseph and Chris closed their eyes at this sight. When it was over, they opened their eyes, and then, Joseph took off his robe and got in._

_Later, Joseph finished his bath, and then put his robe back on. Chris and he gathered their stuff, and walked out of the bathroom. They went back in the hall, and walked up to their room, where the door was wide open. Suddenly, before they even realized something began to happen, the door to their room slammed faster than light-speed._

_The tremendous and startling door slam startled Joseph and Chris. Joseph gave Chris a sneaky look. Chris had an expression that seemed puzzled to what Joseph planned to do and had part of his mouth slightly open. Joseph pointed up, and then, Chris looked up. Above the door, there was a transom window. It was hanging open on its chains. In fact, when Joseph and Chris looked at all the doors closely, they realized that all of them had one._

_Then, Chris looked at Joseph and had a sneaky grin, too. Joseph pulled a grappling hook that he had built, out of his robe's left pocket. The sneakiness in their faces increased._

_Chris grabbed onto Joseph, and Joseph grasped the hook. Joseph aimed the hook at the transom window and fired it. A steel cable shot out from the grasping area, and hooked onto the transom window. Joseph and Chris began to move upward, and then suddenly, they bumped into the upper part of the wall. Chris grasped onto both sides of the wall, while Joseph grasped onto the door, and then jumped down onto the floor. Chris did the same._

_Joseph and Chris were breathing, relieved that they were now safe in their room. Suddenly, the apparition face of Stauf appeared about 5 feet away from them. He looked angry. He approached the boys. Chris crouched down behind Joseph, as Stauf came closer. Joseph put his arms backward, as a way to protect Chris. Just as Stauf was about to become nose to nose with Joseph, he disappeared. The door, which had been closed and locked, now unlocked and opened._

"_Phew!" Joseph said._

"_Let's go to bed, and read, and do crossword puzzles," Chris said._

"_OK," Joseph said. Joseph walked over to the door and closed it. Chris walked over to the four-poster bed that belonged to the house, pulled the covers, and got in._

"_Joseph, can you get my book?" Chris asked. "It's in my backpack."_

"_Sure," Joseph said. He walked over to Chris's backpack and unzipped it. He found _Moby Dick_. Joseph got his crossword puzzle from his box, too. Joseph handed the _Moby Dick_ book to Chris._

"_Thanks," Chris said. Joseph placed some sheets on his bed from his box, and then he lifted them and got inside. Joseph pulled the covers back up as he put his finger in his ear. He had many emergency items in there. Then, he found his emergency pencil. It was covered in earwax. Joseph went to the bathroom and cleaned the pencil. Then, he went back to the room and got back in bed._

_Then, he pressed a button on the left side of his bed inside, and then, over the mattress a fluorescent light fixture turned on. Fluorescent light filled the interior of Joseph's bed._

"_You really do build good models. I may only have to read with a halogen flashlight," Chris said. Joseph got out of bed and took some tools out. He crawled onto Chris's bed, and did some work on the top. Joseph then pressed a button behind Chris's pillow and another fluorescent light glowed. "Thanks, Joseph," Chris said. "You really aren't a dummy." Joseph nodded, beaming, and then, he set his tools down and went back to bed. Joseph began trying to solve the crossword puzzle on his sheet. Chris was reading _Moby Dick_. Suddenly, just as Joseph was about to fill in the last word on his crossword puzzle, he was magically pulled in front of the fireplace. He looked up, and there was a ballerina toy that spun around. There was a picture of some creature with a knife. There was a donkey right below. Joseph believed the painting was called the _Nightmare_. Suddenly, the case on the toy lifted, and the silver ballerina toy began rotating and playing a musical jingle. The creature in the picture began stabbing the donkey, and blood came out of it._

"_Chris! Check it out!" exclaimed Joseph. Chris got out of bed and went to where Joseph was. Chris saw the same thing._

"_Wow," he said softly. The action stopped, and then both boys returned to bed. They continued to do their night activities._


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Joseph and Chris were up doing night activities such as reading and doing crossword puzzles. It was getting late, however, and Joseph and Chris were starting to get sleepy. They needed their energy so they could explore more rooms the next day.

"I'm getting tired," Joseph said.

"Me too," Chris said. "I'm going to stop and get some sleep."

Joseph got up and put his crossword puzzle in his box. He also took Chris's book and put it away in his backpack. Then, Joseph walked over to the door and turned out the overhead lights. Then, Chris and he turned out their bed lights and went to sleep.

At 12:30 in the morning, there was a mysterious cold spot in the room. Joseph's dad usually turned the air-conditioner on at night, and Chris's family sometimes left their windows open at night, bringing in drafts. However, this cold spot was even colder than any of those things. It felt like being in Antarctica, except with no wind blowing.

Joseph and Chris slowly woke up. "Do you feel cold?" Chris asked.

"Yeah. Extremely cold," Joseph said.

"I've never felt this cold in my **life**!" exclaimed Chris.

"I'll start a fire in the fireplace and see if that helps any," Joseph said. Joseph pulled his emergency matches out of his ear and lit a match. The dark room lit up with candlelight. "We should be even warmer with a large fire," Joseph said.

Joseph noticed there were already some logs in the fireplace. Joseph threw the match in there, and then, a huge fire started in the fireplace. There was a lot more light in the room but no changes at all in the heat. "I'll build a huge and efficient heating system for this room," Joseph said.

Joseph turned on the overhead lights again, and then, he took out more tools from his box. Joseph also pulled out some notes on a notebook piece of paper on how to build a heater. Joseph began taking metal parts out and started to construct a heater. After putting in motors and computerized operating systems, he finally finished the furnace.

Then, he built heating ducts and had them circle the room. Then, he placed vents on some places on the heating ducts. Joseph turned on the furnace, and it began operating. Both boys noticed a dramatic improvement in the temperature, but there was still a trace of the cold spot. Joseph smiled happily and turned off the lights. Then, he went back to bed and started to go back to sleep.

An hour later, Joseph and Chris heard noticeable footsteps in the hall. They were loud enough to wake the boys up. Joseph got out of bed slowly and clutched to the wall. Joseph slowly opened the door. Joseph saw huge clouds of steam. Joseph looked both ways in the hall. Nothing or no one except steam was seen in the hall.

"What is it?" Chris asked. Chris was out of bed standing in front of Joseph's bed in his robe.

"Nothing except…steam." Joseph paused and said the last word softly and slowly.

"**Steam?**" Chris asked. Chris walked over to the door and opened it. There, once again, was all the steam in the hall. "That's even more than I imagined!" Chris said. "It's like it's a steam world," he said. Suddenly, some of the steam turned into the shape of Stauf's face.

The face looked angry. "Stay out of my house!" he said again. Then, all of the steam disappeared.

"That's it! I can **not** get **any** sleep in this house!" Joseph yelled. "I'm out of here!" Suddenly, the door closed. "All right, all right, I'll stay," said Joseph.

Joseph and Chris went back to sleep. Two hours later, at 3:30 in the morning, Joseph and Chris felt something strange was in the transom window. They opened their eyes and looked at it. In the dark, they could make out two evil eyes. Joseph slowly walked out of bed and turned on the lights. There was nothing in the transom window.

Joseph sleepily and angrily walked over to his bed and tried to get some sleep. Not long afterwards, Chris and he felt something strange watching them. They both peeked out of bed, and saw a strange white, glowing mist just over the fireplace. It then began to stretch downward and soon began developing the shape of a human. When it was about to form its detailed face, it disappeared. Then, Joseph and Chris heard chains, rattling, and whips cracking upstairs. They also heard stabbing and screaming. They also heard someone laughing, who they believed to be Stauf.

That was the last time they woke up during the middle of the night, but even so, strange things still happened. In addition, they always felt they were being watched.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Joseph and Chris woke up groggily the next morning at 7:00. They had woken up many times in the night scared out of their wits all because of Stauf. They wanted to get out as soon as they could.

After getting dressed and going downstairs, Joseph said, "Why don't we go outside and do some exploring? We haven't done that yet," Joseph said.

"There isn't much to see," Chris said.

"Not on the hill, but there is a huge plain below the hill and the narrow path," Joseph replied. "That's where the old man lives right now."

Joseph and Chris opened the stained glass door and went outside. It wasn't exactly sunny, but the sky was blue, and the fresh green grass was sprinkled with dew. An environment like this was very rare to find on the Stauf property.

Joseph and Chris looked below the hill. There was a huge plain right below. The plains rolled on for miles and miles, and there seemed to be no end to it. On the right of the Stauf house, the two boys saw the dirt stairs that the old man created. Then, a little way past the stairs at the bottom, they could see a small log cabin. It looked very simple, and the boys assumed it belonged to the old man.

Joseph and Chris walked down the stairs and eventually made it to ground level. Then, they began to walk around the hill and its area. When they reached the back of the hill, they discovered something interesting. There was a black Ford Model T covered under pine straw, spider webs, cobwebs, and snapped-off tree branches. There was also a small dusting of small pieces of garbage. The Model T was rusted and did not have a very shiny coat of black paint. The black paint had faded and rusted so much that it now looked gray. Its leather cover was draped over the car, and the hood was open. The car smelled oily, just like Joseph and Chris believed an old car should smell like. The boys approached the car and stood by the front of the car.

There was an old-fashioned car light that was broken. Another light was hanging down on its cords. Both lights had dew on them, and the lights looked slightly yellowish. The windshield had a large section of glass broken off. With further inspection, there was a rock on the driver's seat of the car, and several shattered pieces of glass were located nearby the rock. The boys assumed that the rock broke the window.

They looked at the engine. It was a simple engine and had a little bit of rust. The color of the engine was dark gray, and the engine felt rough when the boys touched it. The coloration of the engine was caused by all its years being exposed to the weather. On one part of the engine, there was a bolt that had a wrench attached to it. It appeared that someone was fixing his or her car, and he or she abandoned it.

Suddenly, the boys were moved back and saw a ghost turning the wrench back and forth. Suddenly, the ghost heard a voice calling him. The voice asked him if he wanted to stay at his house as a guest. The ghost man looked up and called, "Sure." Joseph and Chris looked up. There was Stauf looking down at the man. Then, the ghosts disappeared.

Joseph and Chris did some more exploring after they saw the car. A few miles away from the hill, they began to see tire tracks. They followed the tracks for a few more hours, and then, the tracks led them to a cemetery. There was a cemetery in Joseph's neighborhood, but this wasn't it. This cemetery was much larger and had long, rusted black fences with arrows at the top surrounding the graveyard. There were two tall black and rusted doors, which were the gates. They stood wide open, as if they were expecting the boys to arrive.

The boys walked through the graves. They saw many names of the people who died, but at the front of the cemetery, they saw an interesting grave. It read:

**Here Lies**

**Tad Gorman**

**(1918 to 1931)**

**DIED IN THE STAUF HOUSE OF MURDER. NO ONE KNOWS WHO KILLED TAD**

"Hey! That's about thirteen years apart! That boy in the white clothes looked about like a young teenage boy in that time period should!" Joseph said. "That must be Tad!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah," Chris said, and look what I found," he said sadly, and sacredly. Chris pointed to a gravestone just in front of Tad's. It read:

**Here Lies**

**Henry Stauf**

**(1866 to 1931)**

**DIED IN HIS HOUSE OF A HEART FAILURE A FEW MONTHS AFTER INVITING 6 GUESTS INTO HIS HOUSE**

"Chris, I think we should leave this tomb alone," Joseph whispered into Chris's ear with his right hand against his lips.

"Yeah," Chris whispered. The boys slowly walked out of the cemetery. Suddenly, the rusted black gates that were open slowly closed while making noises that showed signs of needing oil. Extremely sharp spikes poked out of the doors and the bars. Then, the short fences turned extremely tall. They were as tall as the Empire State Building. The gates increased in size too.

Then, the gaps in the fences and gates filled up with cement, and spikes poked through the cement. Then, the gravestones slowly disappeared into the ground, and then, the ground filled up with cement. Spikes began to come out of the ground. "Don't worry, Chris, there's a spot that isn't covered with cement at the top. We can use my emergency jet pack to get out of here," Joseph said.

Just after Joseph said that, a cement ceiling formed on top. Spikes came out. Then, many coffins jumped from out of the ground like jumping beans, and then, they landed on the ground. Then, all of the walls began closing in.

Joseph and Chris gathered their loudest voices and screamed for help. The walls stopped moving, and then, they began to move back. "Phew, I guess Stauf is finally giving us a break," Chris said. Then, a black demolition ball destroyed the cement, and then, the coffins sank back down through the dirt, and the gates shrunk back to their normal size. Everything else returned to normal as well.

Then, the boys saw a man that looked about 40 years old. He had a lot of construction materials with him, and he wore an orange hardhat. It had reflective yellow strips on it. The man's face looked a little like Stauf. He was bald and had black hair. "Sorry, I was trying to destroy the cemetery. I believe the hauntings in that house are partly caused by the cemetery," the man explained.

"How did you get the cement and spikes to appear with no one being seen doing it?" Chris asked.

"Latest invention," the man said. "It sends out some rays, then they combine, and you have cement," he said.

"How about raising the cemetery walls?" Chris asked.

"I used an electromagnet to pull them upward. Most of the fence is hidden underground to keep the coffins in place in case of a flood," he said. "I closed the doors by placing the magnet behind the cemetery, and that pulled them together."

"I'm an inventor, too," Joseph said.

"What is you latest invention?" the man asked.

Joseph pulled out the red phones. "I built these video phones," Joseph said. "I've also built an efficient portable bed, a furnace, and a teleporter," he continued.

"Wow," the man said.

"He's a genius," Chris said.

"What are you kids doing here?" the man asked.

"We learned from Joseph, that's the kid next to me, and Tanner, another kid we know, about this house. We decided to investigate and try to learn Stauf's secret. We've opened a lot of unlocked doors, in the house," Chris said.

"My name is Bob Carmichael, and I once lived in that house, too," Bob said.

"Last night, Chris and I had experienced a lot of scary things, like the bedroom door locking us out, seeing a pair of eyes staring at us in the dark, a white mist above the fireplace, a draft, and scary dreams," Joseph said.

"Also, in a painting, we saw hands come out of the wall, a door opening and closing faster than light-speed, books scattering off their shelves, and floating in the air and rotating in a circle around the red couch, which was also floating in the air, and more," Chris said. "We even saw a **crypt** in the basement!" Chris added.

"I experienced scarier things," Bob said. "I moved into that house about 10 years ago, hoping to live in a larger and more comfortable house. I once lived in an apartment. I had too many things. There were even too many things to store in the storage bin. So I moved out after looking for a new house. All of the houses I found were either too small or too expensive. Some didn't have anything I liked. One time, I drove down the road in front of the lake, when I saw a clearing in the trees. I stopped my car and saw the house on the hill. It was not for sale, but it looked old and abandoned. Apparently, no one was there. The next day, I moved into that house," Bob said. "The instant I walked into the house I didn't feel very comfortable. The sky was always dark, even if the areas around the property were extremely bright. I also kept on feeling this eerie presence around me. I didn't want to leave, though, because the house was so big and beautiful, and there was a lot of beautiful land around it. So I still stayed there," said Bob. "Later, not only did I feel the presence, but I actually **experienced** things! I felt drafts at night everywhere in the house. Once, there was steam coming through the halls. On the attic stairs, I saw gallons and gallons of blood flowing down the stairs rapidly! Many times, I even experienced door slams faster than light-speed. Many times, I kept on seeing a man in the house. He looked a lot like a man called Stauf in the photo album in the library. Many times, I would unexpectedly see a physical manifestation that looked like him that was shining brightly saying calmly, 'What are you doing in my house?' I sensed he was going to hurt me. So I bent down to the floor, all crunched up together, but suddenly, nothing was sensed. I looked up, and the man was gone!" Bob said. "Finally, after even more scary hauntings, I finally got so angry and fed up that I left the house. I still live on the property since all of the mountains are so beautiful. I now live in a tall metal structure in the valley a few miles away from the cemetery. If you ever need me for anything, I'll be a close neighbor," Bob said.

"OK," Joseph said.

"Did you know that there was another man who also lived here?" Chris asked.

"You mean 'Old Man' John?" Bob wondered. "He lives in a wooden log cabin just below the hill, and he is 73 years old. He lived in the Stauf house in 1950. He's probably your closest neighbor," Bob said.

Joseph and Chris thanked Bob for his information, and then, they waved to him as they began walking away. When they were a few feet away, Chris said to Joseph, "Do you think he **is** Stauf? I mean, he looks a little bit like him, and he acts very suspicious."

"Not necessarily," Joseph replied. "He could look like him, but he could still be telling the truth. After all, he experienced what we did."

"But he experienced many of the things we did, so that must mean he's trying to tell us that he's haunting us," Chris said.

"Chris," Joseph said, "we won't know the truth until we finally solve the mystery. Now let's look around some more."

That day, Joseph and Chris found nothing, so they headed back to the house that night. Joseph took a yellow hardhat from his ear. It had a light attached that could shine as far as 10 meters. Joseph turned it on, and the boys felt safer while being in the light. Joseph and Chris went back onto the grassy hill, and they slowly approached the house. Joseph slowly opened the door, and the boys entered the house slowly and reluctantly.

Joseph's hardhat brightened up the house, and the hardhat made it seem as though there was a bright overhead light shining above the foyer. The only lights in the foyer were the lamps attached to the posts at the foot of the stairs, but the light they produced wasn't enough to brightly light up the foyer. With the hardhat light making the foyer brighter, Joseph and Chris felt safer right then. The boys shut the door and walked up the stairs and turned left. They had also brightened up the halls using Joseph's halogen flashlight, which he'd taken from his ear. It was black, and it had a red button near the light-bulb. They walked down the halls until they reached a room across the bathroom.

"We haven't entered this room yet," Chris said. Joseph opened the door, and the boys saw another bedroom. It had a lot of variety of colors, but the colors were rather dark. Joseph turned off his hardhat. The room wasn't as big as any of the bedrooms they had seen, but it had room for at least one twin-sized bed. "Why don't we sleep **here** tonight?" Chris suggested. "Tomorrow we can explore what's behind that door." Chris pointed his left pointer finger at the door on the left side of the room. It was in the far back part of the room right next to a four-poster bed. Joseph and Chris were pulled to the front of the bed and saw a suitcase. It was covered with silver coins.

Joseph and Chris were pulled right, and they saw another set of coins. Joseph and Chris tinkered with the puzzle, flipping over coins in a sequential pattern. When they goofed up, the coins would magically turn over and Stauf would snicker at them from somewhere unknown. Eventually, the boys realized what they were supposed to do. They easily solved the puzzle. Then, the boys moved over to solve the second part of the puzzle. It looked like the shape of a backwards dollar sign. It took Joseph and Chris an hour to solve the puzzle since it was harder than the other one, but at last, they solved it.

Joseph and Chris walked out of the room, and they entered the Chess room. They gathered all of their things and walked into the coin room and placed them there. Joseph set up his bed in front of the four-poster bed, got into his robe, and then, he turned off his halogen flashlight and put it back in his ear. He also put his hardhat back in his ear. Then, he got into bed and fell asleep. Chris got in the bed that was already in the room, but he had a hard time sleeping for a while. Then, he looked at the door next to his bed and whispered to himself, "Tomorrow, we see what's behind that door." Then, Chris smiled as he closed his eyes and happily fell asleep.


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Joseph and Chris woke up the next morning and got dressed. Then, they opened the door Chris discovered, and they were awfully surprised at what was behind it. It was a chapel! The room was dark, but it had a little bit of light coming in through the windows in the back of the room.

The chapel was made out of stone, and it had about six benches in the front. In the back near the altar, there was a window that seemed to point up. On the left side of the chapel, there was a short blue pipe organ. On the right side of the chapel, there was a door that led to a confession booth. In front of the windows, there was a pedestal with a woolly red blanket that covered it for the coffins to lie on without scratching the pedestal.

Even without the organ playing, sad music still echoed through the chapel without any definite source. "Come on, Chris! Let's check out the back of the room," Joseph said. Joseph began to run, while Chris slowly walked forward. Suddenly, Joseph tripped on something. "That Stauf!" Joseph yelled. "I'll get him for that!" Joseph's words echoed through the chapel.

"It's not Stauf," Chris said. "There's a gap in the floor. We need to find a way across it," he continued. Joseph pulled himself up, and he looked at the hole in the floor. "It's so small that we can just walk across."

Joseph ran and jumped over the hole, but an invisible bouncy force bounced Joseph behind the hole again. Joseph ran back to the door to get his B.B. gun to shoot at the invisible substance. He discovered that the door was boarded up and chained up. "Chris…look!" Joseph said in a scared manner. Joseph pointed to the door with his left finger. Chris looked and opened his mouth in horror.

"We're trapped in the chapel!" Chris yelled.

"Oh well, might as well try to solve the puzzle," Joseph said. While Chris took one of the benches and used it as a battering ram to open the door, Joseph calmly tried to solve the puzzle on the floor.

Finally, Joseph gave up, just as Chris was about to tear down the door. "Let's just have the book solve it for us," Joseph suggested. Then, Stauf magically reset the puzzle, and then, all of the colorful stones disappeared, leaving an even larger gap in the floor. Joseph and Chris fell through screaming, wondering if they would end up anywhere bad.

At last, they landed in the library. Joseph raced over to the book and turned the page. There were some hints on the puzzle. "Maybe **these** will help us," Chris said.

The clues said, "**If you can make it to the other side, you may find salvation at my altar. But watch your step in this holey place!**" Clue two said, "**The markings on the stones represent numeric markings. Jump to adjacent stones according to the value of the stone on which you land.**" Then, the boys were transported back to the chapel.

Joseph and Chris were stuck in the chapel for about an hour. Joseph was frantically working at the puzzle, while Chris tried to tear the door open. Finally, Joseph had solved the puzzle, and he made the gap possible to cross. Joseph stood up and turned and looked at Chris. Chris had a triumphant expression on his face. He had discovered a large log in the chapel. Chris fiercely ran towards the door, and then, as he was doing it, slowly began to move the log backwards, and then, he fiercely moved it forward as he approached the door. Suddenly, there was a loud noise.

_**BANG!**_

It sounded kind of like an explosion in a way. For a moment, there was nothing to see in the room. Eventually, all the sawdust that had polluted the air after Chris rammed into the door began to clear up, and the boys could see the room again. They realized that Chris had finally torn the door apart. There were still ripped pieces of plywood still stuck in the doorframe that remained after Chris had demolished most of the other boards on the door. The boys could see into the other bedroom.

"I wanted to check out the **rest** of the chapel," Joseph sad sadly to Chris. Chris was proud that he had beaten one of Stauf's annoying obstacles. Now, they had easy access out of the room.

"_HA! IN YOUR FACE, STAUF!_"shouted Chris. After Chris said that, the door magically built back up by itself. It looked exactly the way it did before Chris tore it down. Chris scowled at the fact that Stauf had ruined his triumph.

"Come on, Chris, let's check out this place," Joseph said happily. The two boys crossed the chapel and approached the pedestal. The sad music the boys heard suddenly grew much louder and much sadder. Then, they saw Dutton meeting a man wearing a black cape that had suddenly appeared. Joseph and Chris looked closely at the man in the cape. They realized that the man was Stauf! Dutton was on the left side of the pedestal, and Stauf was on the right side of the pedestal. Then, the boys noticed that there was a dying baby lying on the pedestal.

Apparently, the baby was a sacrifice to something. Stauf gave Dutton a sword. The sword looked like it had electrical energy around it, as there was some sort of electric glow that surrounded the sword. Dutton grabbed the sword, and an electrical glow surrounded him as well. It seemed to weaken his strength. Stauf laughed evilly as he watched Dutton lose strength.

Then, Dutton, Stauf, the baby, and the sword faded away. The music toned down and became less intense. Joseph and Chris turned to their left. They saw that a skeleton was sitting at the pipe organ playing the same haunting tune that was heard when the boys watched the drama about Dutton and Stauf. The skeleton stopped playing the organ, but the music still continued to play. The skeleton turned his head and looked at the boys. Then, the skeleton faded away, and the music toned down once again. Joseph and Chris looked to their right, and they saw the dark brown door that led to the confession booth. The two boys casually walked over to the door and opened it. When they looked inside, they were surprised to see that the confession booth was actually hollowed out into an entrance to a metal door, which led to a laboratory. The boys slowly walked into the laboratory, and the metal door closed shut behind them.

The laboratory didn't have too much machinery, as it was really a simple little lab. It had cups and beakers that contained certain formulas. In the back was a microscope. All around the room, there were bookshelves. The bookshelves were filled head-to-toe with chemistry books, physics books, and personal science log notebooks. Above the lab, there was a simple light fixture. There was an old-fashioned stretcher with wheels in the center of the room. The stretcher had a brown leather pocket hanging from it. From where Joseph and Chris were standing, they could see an object that looked like a human brain in the pocket.

Suddenly, they saw an apparition. A brainless man appeared, and he was lying in the stretcher. He was moaning loudly and feeling around, trying to look for his brain. His right hand reached into the pocket and squeezed the brain, realizing that he had found it. Then, he disappeared.

Joseph and Chris walked over to the microscope in the back of the room. They both looked inside the microscope, and they saw two green cells and two blue cells. Each cell was isolated in its own corner of the playing area. Joseph and Chris moved the blue cells around a little bit, assuming they were supposed to remove the green cells. However, this puzzle was far too complicated, as the green cells were always expanding faster than the blue cells, and the green cells always were consuming blue cells. Joseph and Chris decided to go back to the library to have the book help them out.

Joseph and Chris walked away from the puzzle, and they went up to the metal door they initially came through. The door had a bunch of rods and gears, and they spun whenever Joseph and Chris tried to open the door. It would not open. Fortunately, the boys spotted another door. They went through the door, thinking they could go back into the chapel so they could go back to the library. To their surprise, the door they entered led them directly to the library.

Joseph and Chris opened the book and saw hints. "**This game can be infectious. If your blue blood cells are effective, they should out number my green viruses by mutation in the end.**" Clue #2 was, "**To replicate a blue blood cell, select a vacant space 1 or 2 spaces away in any direction. If you jump over 1 other cell, the cell moves but does not replicate.**"

The boys were transported back to the lab but still decided to have to book solve it for them. Then, they turned around and went through the door again. They were back in the library. Joseph walked over to the book, and turned its page. The words there said, "**The puzzle is solved!**" Then, the page turned over, and the door popped up. Joseph and Chris were pulled through the door, and then, they were back in the laboratory.

Then, the boys saw a drama about Temple, who thought he just discovered Stauf's power. He looked through one of Stauf's logbooks, but he was unsatisfied with his discovery. Suddenly, he disappeared into a flash of light. Stauf's loud laughter was heard in the room, though Stauf himself was not visible.

Then, Joseph and Chris decided to check other rooms for puzzles. Then, the boys took a large log they found in the lab and both lifted it up. They ran towards the metal door in the lab and burst it open.

The door had been pulled off its hinges, and it was ricocheting around the lab. Joseph and Chris sat down on the stairs that led to the door. They pulled out bags of popcorn from out of nowhere and enjoyed watching the door ricocheting around the lab. It was breaking bottles, smashing bookcases, and some machinery. Then, it finally fell to the ground after the things in the lab were destroyed. Joseph and Chris stood up and dropped their bags of popcorn. They started walking into the chapel.

Suddenly, as the boys entered the back of the chapel, they saw a huge enlargement of Stauf's face near the ceiling. This face was an apparition. "I'll give you three seconds to leave this building! Or else, you'll be cursed…1…2…" Stauf started.

Just on three, Joseph and Chris sprang off the ground and burst through the chapel windows. Shattered glass was flying everywhere. Joseph and Chris were actually **flying!** The instant they burst out the windows, they began to fly. They flew a few miles away from the house, and they eventually landed at Bob's house. They landed with a hard **THUD!**

Joseph and Chris panted in order to be relieved. Then, Joseph pulled an emergency scooter out of his ear. Joseph and Chris got on it, and they began kicking their way back to the house.

Many hours later, they arrived back at the hill. It was almost nighttime, which was the worst time to be at the Stauf house. Joseph and Chris slowly entered the house. Everything was normal. Still, Joseph and Chris walked upstairs very slowly and quietly. When they reached the top of the stairs, Joseph pulled out his emergency halogen flashlight from his ear. Joseph pressed the red button, and once again, the upstairs lit up as if it had electrical lighting. Joseph and Chris walked down the hall on the left, and they finally tried to open the door in the back of the hall. It was unlocked! Joseph and Chris slowly opened the door, and they were surprised to find what was behind the door.


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

There, in the center of the room was a small, average worktable. It was brown and stood on four legs. There was an average wooden chair in front of the table. The room was simply described as a toy making room. Dolls filled the room as well as many little things to go along with the dolls. Shadows of some of the dolls were seen in the bright candlelight. There was a puzzle on the table. Joseph turned off his halogen flashlight. Then, Chris and he walked over to the table, and they examined it. They saw a picture of the house, showing the way it would look if it were burned in a fire. Suddenly, the nine large cubes that showed the picture of the house turned and got mixed up. The action stopped, but the puzzle remained mixed up.

Joseph and Chris worked on the puzzle, and they eventually got the picture looking the way it did. Then, the mysterious force pulled them away from the puzzle, and they saw a drama. Temple and Mrs. Knox just learned that the souls of the dead children were in the dolls. They knew that Stauf did it, and he killed the children. They wanted to warn Tad that he was in trouble. Then, the drama stopped.

Joseph and Chris walked farther back into the room. They turned to their left and saw the inside of a cabinet. In the back of the cabinet, there was a tiny doll-sized door. The boys magically shrunk, and then, the strange spirit force pulled them through the door.

Inside, there was a surprise. It was a baby room. It had baby toys, baby furniture, a baby environment, and other baby-related things. Suddenly, an apparition dog appeared in the toy box near the back of the room. It was an angry dog. It had blood flooding from its mouth. Then, it disappeared.

Joseph and Chris looked at each other with wide-open eyes. "This innocent baby room is actually very scary," Chris said excitedly, but mostly cowardly.

"I wonder if there are any puzzles here," Joseph wondered aloud.

At that instant, they were moved right. Then, the bottom drawer on a brown dresser pulled open, and it showed 9 wooden blocks. One letter was on each of the blocks. Many letters were shown. They didn't say anything, as they were scrambled.

"Let's unscramble the letters," Chris said excitedly.

Joseph and Chris took turns unscrambling the letters, and an hour later, they finally completed the puzzle. It said, "GET BOY TAD." Then, the boys were moved back to the front of the room. Suddenly, they saw Stauf looking into a strange window-seat in the back of the room. They heard a baby crying. Then, the drama stopped, and then, the same spiritual force moved the boys to the window-seat. The "window-seat" was purplish-pink, and it was not by any window. In fact, there were no windows in that room anyway! Joseph and Chris thought of it as a window-seat because it looked like a window-seat. Then, they saw an apparition baby crying. The baby was sitting next to a Stauf toy. The toy moved his right arm and held the baby's mouth shut. The baby couldn't cry anymore. His face slowly began to turn blue. The baby looked as if it were dying. Then, the apparitions disappeared.

Joseph and Chris turned around, and they walked to the door and slowly left the room. To their surprise, they did not end up in Stauf's workshop. Instead, they were back in the upstairs hall.

"Why don't we check the locked room on the right side of the room to see if it's opened yet?" Chris asked.

Joseph and Chris started down the hall casually. They walked until they reached the door that was locked. The boys turned around, facing the door. They checked to see if it was unlocked. Sure enough, the door was unlocked, so the boys slowly turned the doorknob and entered the room. They both looked at the bedroom in silence. They both smiled happily at each other. What they discovered was quite interesting.


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Behind the door was a large, bright bedroom. It had mostly colors of gray and brown. It had a bed on the right wall. A far distance across, there was a dresser. On the front wall, there were three doors; the middle door being the one Joseph and Chris had just opened. Joseph and Chris shut the door and saw some cards on a nightstand by the bed. They walked over and smiled at them. They picked them up, and they played with the cards until they realized that this was another puzzle.

The boys tried to solve the puzzle, and then, 30 minutes later, they finished it together. They were moved over and had to solve another puzzle. Joseph tried to solve this one alone. 30 minutes later, he gave up, and he let Chris try. Chris solved the puzzle in less than a minute. Chris turned around, closed his eyes, and smiled triumphantly. He even lifted his chest a little bit to suggest that he was boasting. Joseph dropped his mouth open in shock after Chris had solved the puzzle so quickly.

The boys suddenly turned their attention to a drama. Dutton and Temple appeared in the room. Temple was still obsessed with trying to find Stauf's power. Then, he saw a top hat on a bed. He thought that it contained the secret to Stauf's power. Then, he saw a woman skeleton sitting on the bed. Temple yelled, "STOP IT, STOP IT!" Then, the drama stopped altogether.

Joseph and Chris turned around and looked at the three doors at the front of the room. "Which one goes out?" Joseph asked. The boys closed the door when they entered the room, and they hadn't paid attention to the door's location in perspective of the other doors.

"I'll try the door on the left, and you try the one on the right," Chris commanded.

"Right," Joseph agreed.

Chris went through the left door, and he found himself coming out of an oven. Then, Chris closed the oven door, and he looked around. He was in the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Joseph went through the right door. Suddenly, he found himself in the library. The place was deserted. There was no Chris, no ghosts, and nobody else either. Joseph decided to solve the next puzzle by using the book without having to even see the puzzle.

Joseph walked over to the book and turned the page. Suddenly, he found himself in another room. He was looking straight into a painting of Stauf. Stauf looked mad. The face in Stauf's painting was changing shapes, and it was also trying to stretch out of the canvas. The picture was stretching outward because of that. Finally, the action stopped, and Joseph was back in the library.

Meanwhile, Chris saw a drama about Tad exploring the kitchen, and he saw another drama about Heine cooking soup, but the soup turned out to be blood! Suddenly, the blood level began to rise rapidly. Not only that, but it slowly began to turn into a face. Heine got scared, so she took a few steps back and dropped her ladle. "BRING HIM TO ME!" shouted the face in a sinister voice. Heine screamed and fell down. The face laughed the way Stauf did, and then, it sank back into the pot and became normal blood soup.

There was no one left in the kitchen except Chris. Chris, breathing extremely fast, clutched to a wall. He slowly began to cower. He had never seen anything so scary! At last, when he got over it, he walked over to the kitchen door and tried opening it. It had been locked! Chris began banging on the door. Then, yelling extremely loudly so that it would be possible for his voice to be heard everywhere in the house, Chris roared, "**_STAUF, I'M GOING TO GET YOU AS SOON AS I GET OUT OF THIS LOCKED KITCHEN! YOU'LL REALLY REGRET IT!_**"

Joseph ran out of the library because he heard Chris's yells for help. Joseph was looking in the library for books about Stauf when he heard Chris's threat to Stauf. Joseph went to the kitchen door and tried to pull it open. Then, Joseph yelled out so that the whole house could hear. "**_STAUF, IF YOU DON'T LET MY FRIEND OUT, I'M GOING TO MAKE SURE YOU WILL GET IT_!**" Joseph threatened firmly and loudly. Nothing happened, although Joseph could hear faint evil laughter from upstairs. "**_THAT'S IT! IIIII'M GOING UP THERE!_**" Joseph yelled. Joseph leaned forward, bravely stomping so hard that he created dents in the floor. Joseph stomped upstairs. When walking upstairs in the same manner, Joseph created holes in the stairs.

Joseph called up the stairs, "_IF I DAMAGE YOUR HOUSE, IT'S WHAT YOU DESERVE FOR LOCKING UP MY FRIEND!_" Then, just as Joseph was about to make it upstairs, the stairs mysteriously turned into a ramp, and Joseph tumbled backwards, shortly being caught in the holes he created before. Suddenly, Joseph was coming to the foot of the stairs, when suddenly, because of his tumbling, he shot into the air. He was **_FLYING_**! Joseph enjoyed a good 5 minutes of soaring around the top of the tall ceilings of the house. Finally, Joseph slowed down and lightly landed on both of his feet.

Joseph lifted his arms into the air, and pointed his fingers upward, like an athlete did at the end of a well-done sport. Joseph lowered his arms, and boasted, "HA, HAA! I enjoyed myself, Stauf, so you can't make me be scared!"

Suddenly, billions of supernatural things happened at that instant. "OK, I'm scared," said Joseph pitifully. Everything halted, and then, the kitchen door magically flung open. The ramp turned back into stairs.

Chris ran out of the doorway and walked over to the stairs where Joseph was. "How did these holes and dents get on the stairs and the floor?" Chris asked.

"I did that after I began trying to go upstairs," Joseph humored.

"I'm sure Stauf will be mad at you for doing that," Chris said.

"I don't care. He deserves it for locking you up," Joseph said.

"Where did you end up when you went through the door upstairs in that bedroom?" Chris asked. "I went through an oven and became trapped in the kitchen."

"Well, I went to the library, and then, the strangest thing happened. About a second after arriving, I decided to automatically solve the next puzzle without going to it, but instead, I saw a painting of Stauf in some unknown room, and he was moving outward, and then…Chris?" Joseph stopped talking, realizing that Chris was gone.

Joseph was running around the downstairs floor for a moment until he found Chris cowering in a corner between the locked double doors and the library. "What are you doing here?" Joseph asked questioningly.

"Don't _EVER_ mention magically being near anything having to do with Stauf, and something happening. That man is_ SCARY!_" Chris exclaimed.

"I was scared too, but fortunately, everything became normal, and I was beamed back to the library.

"Then, about 5 minutes later, while I was looking for books having to do with Stauf, I heard, '**_STAUF, I'M GOING TO GET YOU AS SOON AS I GET OUT OF THIS LOCKED KITCHEN! YOU'LL REALLY REGRET IT!_**' I rushed to the kitchen and found the door locked," Joseph said.

"Do you think that when Stauf was moving in his painting, he could have caused me to be locked in the kitchen?" Chris wondered as he got up, and walked towards Joseph.

"It's possible," Joseph said. "Let's see if the double doors over here are unlocked," Joseph suggested. Then, both boys approached the doors. Joseph pulled the left door open and saw a music room. It was large. It had smooth, beige paneled walls. A black grand piano was in the center of the room, and there were two bookshelves. On the front wall, there was a phonograph and the same double doors the boys stood in. Everything else in the room was musical.

"Well, it's getting too late to some anymore puzzles, so I'm going to bed," Joseph said.

"Me too," Chris said. Suddenly, the supernatural force pulled the boys to a plant in the room, and then, the plant stretched to the top of the ceiling, where a hole was spotted. Joseph and Chris climbed up and found themselves back in the room that went to the chapel.

Suddenly, a calm Stauf appeared, saying humorously to them, "What do you think this is, a hotel?" Then, he disappeared.

"Let's sleep in the room with the cards. It's larger," Joseph suggested.

"OK," Chris said.

Joseph pulled a remote control from his ear, and then, he pressed a button. The bed folded up until it turned into a small, thin box that was about the size of a suitcase. It even had a handle on top so it could be carried around. Joseph put the remote control back in his ear. Joseph looked at Chris and smiled.

Chris stared with his mouth open. "You have **got** to make me one of those things. They're so neat!" Chris said slowly. Joseph turned around and opened the door, and he walked down the hall. Chris closed his mouth and began to put away all of his things and put them in his backpack. He then got up and left the room. Behind Chris's back, the door slowly closed.

Chris walked right of the room and walked down the hall. Then, he saw the door to the room with the cards open on the right side of the hall. Chris walked in with his things and saw Joseph trying to get his bed open.

"I'm trying to get my bed to open, but it won't do it," Joseph said. Joseph pressed his remote control button frantically, and there were tiny bits of sweat coming out of his head.

Then, Joseph set his remote control down and knelt to the control box and tried to fiddle with the controls to find out what was wrong. Joseph found the answer right then. "It appears that there is some unnecessary radioactivity in the system. I can get it out, but it will take at least half a day to get out, and I want to sleep," Joseph said.

"Just open the bed manually," Chris said.

"I have designed it so that the bed always locks when it closes," Joseph said. "I guess I'll have to sleep with a blanket on the floor," Joseph said. Joseph got up and put away all his tools. Joseph shoved his bed to the back of the room, and he took a thick blanket from his supply box. Then, Joseph closed the door to the room and turned out the lights. Chris got into his robe, and Joseph did as well. Then, Chris got into the bed, while Joseph lay on the floor in his blanket near the center of the room. Chris fell asleep the instant his head hit the pillow, but Joseph had a hard time going to sleep. He felt that something was watching him, and it wasn't good. It was evil and sneaky. Joseph's heart was beating at a fast rate. Joseph stared at the ceiling, hoping no scary face would appear on it or something frightening like that. Eventually, Joseph fell asleep, and then, right then, it happened.

The bed Joseph set aside opened up, and it seemed to walk over to Joseph. It set one of its hard and heavy feet on Joseph's stomach. Joseph's eyes popped open, and then, Joseph yelled,"_OUCH!_"

Chris woke up suddenly, and surprisingly looked at Joseph. The bed was sitting on Joseph! "What are you doing?" Chris asked annoyed.

"This bed somehow got on my stomach, and then, it even opened!" Joseph said.

"That's not true!" Chris said. "You must have been up working!"

"I was trying to go to sleep and nothing happened," Joseph said.

"Well, I guess that's true, considering the fact that this place is scary, and it's hard to get along with it," Chris said. "And I guess maybe a ghost moved that bed," Chris said.

"Might have been," Joseph said.

"Now that your bed is open, you can get in, and let's go back to sleep," Chris said. Joseph lifted the bed off his stomach and got out from under it. Then, he put his blanket in the bed and then, he got inside. Joseph pulled the curtains closed from inside his bed and zipped them shut. Joseph pulled the blanket over himself and decided to stay awake.

Joseph was thinking a little that night. "I believe we have been just about everywhere in this house," Joseph thought. "I'm extremely scared of this house because any scary event can happen, so I want to get out of here as soon as I can. I am also missing days at school because of this house. I think I should solve all the puzzles at night so that Chris and I can explore the last room up here and get out of here," Joseph continued to think. "But what if something bad happens here?" Joseph thought again. "Wait, I know what!" Joseph thought.

Joseph unzipped his curtains and jumped out of bed. Joseph jetted out of the room, ran down the stairs, and flung open the stained-glass door. Joseph got on his bike, and he quickly jetted back home. Joseph opened the garage door to his home, lucky that his parents still had the garage door open. Joseph darted upstairs to his room in the dark house. He then flipped on the lights to his room, and he saw his large red toolbox with all his wrenches, bolts, nails, screws, metal sheets, and other related objects. Joseph grabbed his huge toolbox, turned out the lights, and hurried out of his home and got on his bike. Joseph biked slowly, as it was hard to bike with a bulky, heavy toolbox in his lap. His bike wobbled a bit as Joseph returned to the Stauf property. Eventually, upon returning to the house, Joseph laid his bike down and took his toolbox inside. He shut the stained-glass door and set his toolbox in the middle of the foyer.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Joseph opened his huge toolbox and pulled out his halogen flashlight from his ear. The room shone brightly. Joseph looked at the light-bulbs on the posts at the foot of the stairs. They were still lit, but they were not bright enough to effectively light the entire foyer. Joseph took a wrench out of his huge toolbox and threw it at the light-bulbs. They shattered and shut off. Then, Joseph took a long anti-gravity metal platform from his huge toolbox and hooked some long chains from his huge toolbox. Then, he attached the chains to the floor tightly. Joseph got his huge toolbox and himself onto the platform. He pressed a button on the stand on the platform.

The platform lifted and so did Joseph and his toolbox. At last, the platform reached the top of the room. The chains were just the right length to hold the platform at just the right area for Joseph to work. Then, Joseph turned around and bent down. He pulled out some long, new fluorescent light fixtures and attached them to the ceiling. All of them surrounded the space between the stained glass door and the foot of the stairs in a circular way. There was no light hovering in the space between the stained glass door and the stairs. Joseph then got several fluorescent light-bulbs and inserted them into the light fixtures. Then, Joseph took some wiring and attached it to one of the fixtures by the stained-glass door. All of the fixtures were electrically connected and didn't need to be wired. Joseph moved his platform slightly closer to the door, and then, he began nailing the wire to the ceiling.

Then, Joseph got to the top of the wall and then lowered his platform as he nailed the wires to the framing of the stained-glass door. At last, Joseph landed, and he had his wiring all the way to the ground. Then, Joseph pulled out a battery from his huge toolbox and hooked it up to the wiring. Then, a rotary dimmer switch was attached to the wiring and battery. Joseph tested it. With all of his experience with electricity, he should have gotten it right.

It worked right! The fluorescent lighting lit up the room. The areas in the left and right alcoves were dark, but at least the room didn't have the old dim lights like it used to have. At least now the room had better lighting, and people would feel more comfortable. Joseph turned the dimmer on full blast, set his huge toolbox down on the floor, and then walked away from the stained-glass door. He headed into the dark right alcove and headed to the door that led to the room where the piano was.

He opened the double doors and immediately ran to the piano. Joseph sat down and then realized that this was another one of Stauf's puzzles. One of the piano keys pressed down by itself, and Joseph pressed it back. Then, the same key pressed down again, and then, another piano key pressed down by itself. Joseph was a bit confused by this activity, so he decided to have the book solve it for him.

Joseph got off the piano bench and went back through the double doors. Joseph hurried to the library because he wanted to get the puzzle over with and to get some sleep. Joseph went into the library and stopped at the coffee table. Then, Joseph turned the page. Magically, it displayed the clues to the puzzle Joseph was solving. "**Simon says, 'This tune sounds familiar.'**" Clue number 2 was, "**Repeat the notes by playing the correct piano keys in the proper sequence.**"

Joseph turned the page, and then, he saw the same pop-up doorway. Joseph was pulled through and was back in the music room. Joseph approached the piano and began doing what the clue book said. It was easy in one way because all Joseph had to do was repeat what the piano did. However, it was also somewhat difficult because there were keys to memorize, and it took a long time to repeat. Thirty minutes later, Joseph completed the puzzle, and then, he saw a scary drama.

The ghosts in the room were Tad, Mr. Knox, Dutton, and Martine Burden. Mr. Knox and Dutton were fighting for Tad. They wanted to capture him so they could turn him over to Stauf and get the reward. Mr. Knox took a knife from Burden and stabbed Dutton in the chest.

The ghosts disappeared, and then, Joseph turned around and walked towards the door. Joseph opened the door and walked into the foyer. What was strange was that the fluorescent lighting that had been turned on earlier was now turned off. Joseph ran quickly to the dimmer switch so that evil ghostly characters could not lurk in the foyer. Joseph turned the knob on the dimmer switch, but no lighting came on. Just then, Joseph saw that the wire had been cut. It looked like it was cut with a knife, because the place where the wire was cut was perfectly straight. Actually, it was cut so straight that even a knife couldn't cut as straight as the wire had been. Joseph got some aluminum foil and pieces of electric tape from his toolbox and secured them to both ends of the wires. The lights immediately came on. Then, Joseph turned around and started heading for the stairs. Just then, he was pulled into a rug that was on the floor, and it was now spinning. As he was being pulled, he saw Stauf's face spinning around.

Then, Joseph found himself in an art gallery. Joseph looked around and saw the pictures. He even saw a picture of the music room that captured a view of the grand piano from the double doors. Joseph turned left, and he saw the scariest thing he could imagine!


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

There, hanging on the wall, was the same portrait of Stauf that had been moving. Joseph suddenly had a huge adrenaline rush the instant he saw that image. He thought Stauf was there to get him, but after Joseph calmed down, he realized that nothing happened in the picture. Stauf looked evil, and his expression looked at Joseph like he was saying, "What are you doing here?" Joseph reluctantly walked closer to the picture to look at it more closely. Suddenly, Stauf's face was turning red and green in nine sections on his face. Some colors were the same as they were in the original painting. Joseph figured that he should make Stauf's face return to its normal self.

Joseph was always trying to get Stauf's face to look normal, but always after he touched one section, another color would appear there. "This is a lot like the coffins," Joseph said. At last, 30 minutes later, Joseph had finished the puzzle and walked away from the painting. "Well, that concludes all the puzzles tonight. Now that I've finished all but one, I'd better get some sleep for tomorrow's adventure. The final puzzle will get Stauf out of his house!" Joseph exclaimed.

At that moment, Joseph opened his mouth and had another adrenaline rush. Stauf in the picture was moving and began to talk to Joseph. "I don't **think** so, little boy!" Stauf sneered. The picture became normal soon after Stauf had spoken to Joseph. Joseph was shocked! He had never seen anything like that in all his life!

Then, Joseph turned to the front of the room and saw the picture of the music room. Joseph wondered how he would get out of the portrait gallery. Suddenly, Joseph was pulled through the picture and was back in the music room. "Interesting," Joseph said. Then, Joseph turned around and headed for the door. Joseph pulled the doors open and found that once again the lights had been turned off. "Whoever had been doing this, I command you to show yourself!" Joseph yelled, his words echoing through the house. Then, Joseph went back to the dimmer switch and saw that the aluminum foil had been pulled off.

Joseph repaired the wiring and then took his huge toolbox and put everything in it and closed it. Then, he went up the stairs to bed. Joseph headed down the right hall and opened the door to the room where Chris and he were sleeping that night. Joseph closed the door and set his huge toolbox down. Joseph got into bed, zipped the curtains closed, pulled the covers over himself, and went to bed.


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Chris woke up. He rubbed his eyes and turned to look out the window. It was raining. Chris turned away from the window and looked around the bedroom. It was dark and lonely. Chris could hear the pitter patter of the rain against the house. Chris could see Joseph's electrical four-poster bed. He could see that the covers were pulled up. Joseph must have gotten up! Would he really dare to go alone in the Stauf manor at night? Chris thought about this. Then, he realized that Stauf must have taken Joseph away.

Chris immediately jumped out of the bed, and the covers were flying in the air and then landed back on the bed. Chris ran so fast that his robe tail was flying. He ran out the open bedroom door, down the hall, down the stairs, and then, he suddenly stopped. He saw fluorescent lighting on the ceiling. "Joseph must have done that," Chris thought. "I'm glad. It's so bright in here, and it chases away the ghosts. Chris began to walk to the kitchen and then, he opened the door. There, Chris saw Joseph cooking bacon for breakfast. "Where did you get that bacon?" Chris asked Joseph.

Joseph turned to Chris. "I packed it," he said. "Hey, Chris," Joseph said, turning back to the bacon. "Did you know today is our last day here?" Joseph questioned turning back to him briefly and then turned back to his bacon.

"But we have more puzzles to solve, and then, we go back upstairs and solve whatever's behind that door," Chris said.

"Oh yeah," Joseph said. "Last night, I was staying up to complete all the puzzles except for whatever is behind the door upstairs," he finished.

"Great!" Chris exclaimed excitedly, who was also smiling.

"After breakfast, we're probably going to spend a short time in the room behind the door, and then, we're outta here!" Joseph exclaimed.

Joseph put the bacon strips on two plates Joseph had found in the basement that morning. He had cleaned them thoroughly to make sure it was safe to eat food that was on them. Before, they were covered in dust and had tiny bits of dried blood and oil on them.

Joseph gave one plate to Chris, and then, he grabbed the other plate. Joseph bent down a little bit and spit into the stove. The fire went out. Joseph set his plate down after getting up, and then, he took the greasy frying pan off the stove and put it in the sink. Then, Joseph turned the water on and turned it off when the sink was half full. Joseph put the beige rubber plug in the sink and took his plate with bacon and left the kitchen.

Chris followed Joseph out of the kitchen with his plate. Joseph turned right from the kitchen and opened one of the double doors. It went into the dining room. Joseph had set up some French toast, orange juice, rolls, and other common breakfast foods. There was a banner that said, "Last Day in the Stauf House!" Another one said, "One More Puzzle to Solve, and we're Outta Here!"

One strange thing was that Joseph's posters were ripped, and they were designed to be rip-proof. Once again, Joseph saw the same, straight cut he saw on the electrical wire.

"I think Stauf did that," Chris said to Joseph.

"Well, the messages on the posters are right, though," Joseph said.

Chris and Joseph went into the dining room with their plates. Joseph sat on one side of the table, and Chris sat on the opposite side. Joseph and Chris took some food from the table and put it on their plates and began to eat.

"So, what went on last night?" Chris asked with his mouth full with a fresh roll in it.

"I solved a puzzle in the art gallery and the music room," Joseph said.

"**Art** gallery?" Chris said surprised.

"That's the room where I saw Stauf's picture moving," Joseph said. "You know what else was strange last night?" he continued.

"What?" asked Chris in an eager way.

"I installed some fluorescent lights between the stained glass door and the stairs as you may have noticed, but every time I left the room, the lights always went out, and they went out the first time because the wire was cut. What was even stranger, was that the cut was perfectly straight, just like the cuts on the banners. It was the straightest cut I've seen in my life. No scissors or knives could cut nearly as straight as what I saw. Then, I put some aluminum foil between the ends of the cut wire. I turned the lights back on, but when I got back from the art gallery, the aluminum foil had fallen off. Then, I fixed the wire and went upstairs," Joseph said. "Even when I came down this morning, the lights were off when I had last left them on," Joseph said.

"Strange," Chris said wide eyed looking at Joseph excited. Chris did not seem to be scared by the events that happened the night before. He did not seem to be taking them seriously.

"Chris, this isn't funny, it's scary! Look, we're in a scary house that does things that makes you want to leave right then, and you think it's **cool**?" Joseph said shocked.

Joseph looked at Chris and realized that he had gone out of his mind. Chris was looking at Joseph in an evil way. In Stauf's voice, Chris said, "I warned you: stay out of this house! Now you'll have to pay!" Chris jumped on the top of the table, and everything on it crashed to the floor. Joseph jumped backwards and knocked his chair down.

Joseph stayed clutched to the wall as Chris jumped down and approached Joseph. A knife materialized in Chris's hands, and Chris grabbed it with his right hand. The door on the double doors slammed shut and became locked faster than light-speed. Chris took the knife backwards and then forwards towards Joseph. Then, Joseph knew what to do.

Stauf had taken over Chris's body, so there was one way to stop it: to get Stauf out of Chris! Joseph stared angrily at Chris, swung his right hand backwards and then forwards faster than Chris did with his knife. Then, Joseph gave Chris a big fat slap on the cheek.

Chris's knife disappeared like POOF! And then, Chris fell to the floor and the doors opened. "Why am I suddenly here?" Chris asked.

"Stauf had taken over your body just after I told you about what happened in this house last night."

"That IS strange," Chris said. "It would have to be Stauf," he continued.

"Well, I'm getting bored here anyway. Good thing it's our last day here," Joseph said.

"Why are you bored?" Chris asked.

"Well, there just aren't any people around," Joseph said.

"Oh well, now that we're done with breakfast, why don't we go upstairs, get dressed, and solve the last puzzle?" Chris suggested.

Joseph cleaned up the mess in the dining room and put all the silverware and plates on the table. Then, both boys went upstairs and went to their bedroom. Chris went to the bathroom and got dressed, and then, Joseph did. When they were both back in their bedroom, Joseph took out the remote control to his bed. He pressed one of the buttons, and his bed folded up into a suitcase with a handle again.

Then, Joseph took all of his belongings, which were in the bedroom, and put them in his cardboard box. Joseph taped the box again, and then, he picked it up. Then, he picked up his bed and left the bedroom, placing his items in front of the picture in the middle of the hall. Chris put all of his things in his backpack, and then, he placed his backpack on his back. Chris also made his bed, and then, he left the bedroom, meeting Joseph in the hall. Joseph walked down the hall. Chris followed.

Suddenly, Stauf jumped out of the right wall and yelled, "AH HAA! I'VE GOT YOU **NOW!**" Suddenly, studio lights appeared from the ceiling downstairs. Joseph, Chris, and Stauf looked curiously down there. Men and women scattered from downstairs in different areas and met in between the stairs and the stained-glass door. They were all talking in a normal tone, and their chattering was being echoed around the house.

The director ran where everyone was, turned, and faced the stairs. "Mr. Stauf, you were supposed to do that in the attic, and besides, what you did wasn't in the script anyway!" he said.

"Sorry," Stauf said.

"Oh well, as long as the cartoon has paused, why don't you all just have an orange soda break?" the director offered.

"I never knew we were in a cartoon," Chris said.

Joseph pulled out three orange soda bottles from his left jacket pocket. They were plain and clear. Joseph smiled as he handed orange sodas to all three of them. Joseph and Chris finished their orange sodas first, and then, they looked surprised at Stauf to see that he was still drinking his orange soda.

"Will you hurry up?" Chris asked impatiently.

Stauf gulped a few more bits of orange soda. Then, he said, "Just a minute." Then, 15 seconds later, Stauf finished his orange soda.

"Finally," Joseph said relieved. Joseph, Chris, and Stauf threw their orange soda bottles down the stairs. They finally dropped to the ground. The janitor walked over to the foot of the stairs and picked them up. The janitor walked away from the cameras.

"OK, let's roll it!" yelled the director. Everyone downstairs left each other and went back to their assigned positions.

Then, the studio lights dimmed, and then, the house was once again dark and inhabited by evil ghosts. Stauf ran down the hall and then turned the corner to go to **his** designated position.

"Let's follow him," Joseph said. "Where he's going **is** our last place to go," Joseph said.

"Are you kidding?" Chris said, surprised. "Now we know that…**he's** up there!"

"Come on, Chris, just one more puzzle, and then, we're outta here," Joseph said bravely. Joseph and Chris walked down the hall and turned right just as Stauf did. There was a door in sort of a small hallway.

"Hey, this is the same spot where we appeared from the secret entrance from the library!" Chris said. Then, the boys approached the door. Suddenly, they realized that they were about to have to solve another puzzle.

A red knocker with a serious face appeared on the door, and then, the boys walked closer to it. Then, many miniature knives appeared and jabbed into a star on the knocker. The knives stuck to different points on the star.

"This looks easy," Joseph said. "All we have to do with the knives is jump over other knives to capture their pieces, just like you do in checkers, and you are supposed to have one knife left if I'm correct," Joseph said. He was right. In about 50 seconds, the boys solved that puzzle. Suddenly, the door opened, and the boys were stunned to see what was there.

There, behind the door was a somewhat spiral staircase. Joseph and Chris knew that whatever was up those stairs would probably lead them to the end of their lives…for good!

The boys slowly walked up the stairs. Near the top of the stairs, an incandescent bulb was glowing on the ceiling. The boys saw a gray door at the top of the stairs. Joseph and Chris got near each other, and then, Joseph slowly turned the doorknob, cautious of what might be behind it. Exploring whatever was behind the door could mean the end of their lives.

Then, the boys saw an attic. Both boys entered feeling relieved. Suddenly, the door slammed behind them. It was boarded up. Then, three bad dogs with blood hanging from the bottom of their snouts, just like the one in the children's room, appeared. Then, they slowly disappeared.

The attic looked like a typical attic. It had junk, trunks, things that were part of something that wasn't in use, and other miscellaneous items. The attic was long and had three windows. There was one window on the left side of the attic and two on the right side of the attic. In the back of the attic, there was a mysterious door. There were a few steps leading up to it.

On the right side of the attic, there was a model building. It was a model of a tall skyscraper. It had many windows of different shapes. Joseph and Chris walked up to it and looked at the bottom first. They touched one of the windows, and to their surprise, it lit up, as well as a few others. Joseph and Chris realized that they were probably solving another puzzle. The boys knew what to do, but it took them a while to solve it. An hour later, the boys solved the entire puzzle.

The boys walked away from the model skyscraper, and they suddenly saw Mrs. Knox's head on a dressmaker's dummy. Apparently, her head had been cut off or something. Tad was there, too, but then, Heine sneaked behind him and grabbed Tad. She walked him to the back of the attic and headed toward the door in the back. Then, the drama ended, but then, a trunk in front of the boys opened, and a skeleton got out of it. He turned to the boys and put his arm in the direction of the mysterious door. Then, his jawbone moved, making seem as though the skeleton were saying, "That way." Then, he fell apart, and all of his parts fell into the trunk. The trunk closed, and then, Joseph and Chris slowly approached the door.

Joseph and Chris looked to their right when they thought they saw a ghostly image. There was a mirror, and they saw a ghostly image of Tad. His image wobbled and shook, just like a ghost. His appearance was faded a bit, so his features were not completely distinct. But there were also voices in addition to the apparition. Heine was taunting Tad and saying other bad things to him. She was trying to take him somewhere. Tad shouted, "Let me go!"

Joseph and Chris suddenly began to remember everything they forgot about the Stauf mansion. Chris did not know as much about Stauf as Joseph did, as Joseph told him very little about Stauf before entering the mansion. Joseph remembered all of Stauf's secrets that he read about in the book he borrowed from Stauf. He also remembered the outcome of The 7th Guest, and he got nervous when he realized that Chris and he were at the point where the game was about to end. Joseph also realized that he had taken the book with him to the Stauf mansion, but it was gone.

Now, it was 10 times scarier for the boys to be in the house and to know everything they remembered. The drama ended, and then, Joseph and Chris, who now remembered what they forgot when they first entered, slowly approached the door. They knew it was the door that led into Stauf's evil room, but they did it anyway.


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

The room where Stauf sat was simply described as a medium sized, dark round room. There were two semi-circle windows, but hardly any light shone in. Of course, that's the way it was with the whole house. The door slowly closed behind Joseph and Chris. Joseph remembered what would happen next, according to what happened in The 7th Guest.

Then, Joseph and Chris saw Stauf laughing evilly in a wooden, outdated wheelchair. Then, Heine and Tad came into view. "Bring him here!" ordered Stauf with a devilish grin across his face. Tad was trying to get out of Heine's grip, but he couldn't. Heine asked Stauf what her reward would be. Stauf laughed briefly and spit out a puddle of green slime at Heine's feet.

Heine cried, "You tricked me! You promised me!" She slowly sank through the slime and disappeared. After Heine was out of the picture, Stauf focused his attention on Tad. He opened his mouth and revealed his long, lizard-like tongue. It stretched out on its own and wrapped around Tad. It got a firm grip around Tad's waist. Stauf tried to defeat Tad by doing so. Tad eventually managed to yank off Stauf's tongue. Suddenly, the room suddenly shone brighter with a brief flash of light, and the details of the room were more noticeable. Stauf transformed into no more than a skeleton sitting in a wheelchair.

Then, Stauf and his wheelchair sank in a pool of lava right below him. Then, the room briefly dimmed, and then, it lit up in white light suddenly as Tad came up to Joseph and Chris. "You saved me! It's all been changed now. Now…and forever!" Tad said. Then, he turned into an orb and lifted up. Bright light was shining in the center of the ceiling. The orb was sucked into it, and then, it disappeared.

The light from the center of the ceiling slowly faded away, and the room became dark again. Joseph and Chris turned around and faced the door.

"Weird," Chris said.

"I know, but at least we're done with this place. WE'RE OUTTA HERE!" Joseph exclaimed. "Oh yeah, I wonder whatever happened to my book."

Then, the door slammed. The invisible force that had moved them before grabbed Joseph and Chris, and they floated to the center of the room. Then, the invisible force released them.

"Hey, Chris, I remember this. It was exactly the same thing that happened in our dreams!" Joseph said excitedly.

"Now that we know Stauf will eat us, let's trick him," Chris said sneakily. Joseph and Chris looked at each other sneakily.

Then, Stauf appeared in the wheelchair again. "HA HAA! I TOLD YOU IN YOUR DREAM, BUT YOU NEVER LISTENED, DID YOU?" Stauf sneered.

Then, Stauf opened his mouth wide open and lowered it to Joseph and Chris. Both boys moved to the side quickly, and as a result, Stauf leaned out of his wheelchair. He fell out of his wheelchair and traveled through the attic floor and fell far below. "You fooled me!" Stauf yelled as he was falling through the ground. Then, Stauf's soul returned to his grave.

Suddenly, the book faded in the center of the room. Joseph grabbed it, and then, Chris and he zoomed out of the attic rooms. They both zoomed down the stairs, down the hall, down the stairs, and then, stopped at the stained glass door. They stooped, opened the stained-glass door, and then, they ran out of the house.

Both boys hopped onto their bikes and pedaled away from the house. In Joseph's rear view mirror, Joseph could see Stauf opening the door, closing it, and running after them. Joseph was scared and told Chris, who wasn't aware.

When Chris heard Joseph telling him that, Chris sped far ahead of Joseph. "Wait up, don't let **me** be the victim!" Joseph said. Then, he sped faster away. Unfortunately, Stauf came even closer to Joseph and Chris. Finally, Joseph and Chris zoomed through the space between the trees and finally onto the street. Boy, they were glad to be out of there! They hadn't seen their neighborhood or sunlight for days! They calmly went up the steep road that led to Joseph's house, and then, the boys sped to Joseph's house.

Joseph and Chris rode through Joseph's front yard and jumped off their bikes. They ran into Joseph's house, though the foyer, and picked up the beige wall phone in the kitchen.

Joseph picked up the phone and dialed the police. "Why are you doing that?" Chris asked.

"There's something strange going on in the Stauf house. Stauf supposedly was supposed to disappear after we solved all the puzzles and saved Tad, but despite that, he's still lurking about. According to the book, it says that when all the puzzles are solved, Stauf is to be gone forever. Something must be going on there," Joseph said.

Finally, the police answered, and then, Joseph told them who was calling, where they lived, their phone numbers, a short summary about what happened in the Stauf house, and where the mansion was located. The police told Joseph and Chris to meet them in front of the Stauf house.

Joseph and Chris hung up the phone and ran out the front door and closed it. The boys got onto their bikes and pedaled to the Stauf house.

Five minutes later, the police arrived at the house. Joseph and the police met. The police were wearing blue uniforms with gold badges. Both of them were men. One was taller, and another was shorter. Their car was a four door blue Pontiac that was in need of repair in a few places. The police asked Joseph and Chris to tell them if they met anyone near the Stauf house. Joseph and Chris told them about Bob Carmichael and "Old Man" John.

"I'd think that Bob Carmichael probably has the most to do with this," the shorter man said. "If he looks like Stauf and says he's experienced what you have, he probably actually performed the scary happenings in the mansion. He's a great inventor, too, so he could make a lot of strange things happen." "But I don't think 'Old Man' John would have much to do with it," he continued.

"It's still possible that Bob Carmichael and he could have teamed up and tried to scare people away," the taller man said.

"We'll have them in court and see if they're guilty or not, and while that's taking place, we'll send four police officers to split up in the house and see if anything is going on. If nothing happens, it's probably them," the shorter man said. Then, both men got in the car and then, the shorter man drove down the narrow pathway. They stopped at the hill when they approached it, and the policemen hurried down the dirt stairs. Then, they ran as fast as they could to Bob Carmichael's house. An hour later, they returned, and they also had taken "Old Man" John with them. The policemen handcuffed both of them and instructed them to sit in the backseat. The policemen sat in the front seats in the car. The shorter man rolled his window down and said, "Tomorrow, we'll put them in court and have the four officers split up in the house and see if anything is going on. Then, the police drove away from the area and back on the street. Then, Joseph and Chris turned around and looked at the house. In the attic window, they saw an angry face of Stauf looking out the window at them.


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

The next day, four police officers arrived at the area where the Stauf house was. Bob Carmichael and "Old Man" John were in court while the officers were in the house to examine it. Two cars were parked in front of the groups of trees that shaded the view of the Stauf property. It was a dark, rainy day. Two police officers came out of both cars. There were two groups of a man and a woman. They went into the clearing through the trees and entered the Stauf property. As usual, most of the acres of the land Stauf owned had no trees, and there was a vast area of plains and mountains. It was raining heavily, and it was a big mystery to the police officers why the weather would suddenly change as they entered the Stauf property.

The officers ran quickly down the narrow pathway to head into the house for shelter. At last, they made it to the house's porch, and then, they opened the stained glass door and went inside. The instant they went in and closed the door, they felt uncomfortable. There was an evil presence everywhere. All the officers were going to split up individually, but instead, they decided to split up in groups.

One group went upstairs, and the other group stayed downstairs. Suddenly, just as the downstairs group was about to head into the left alcove, they were pulled through the rug in front of the stairs and found themselves in the art gallery. The police officers turned to their right and saw Stauf's portrait.

"So **this** is who used to own the house," the woman officer said.

On the bottom of the frame, there was a gold template that said Henry Stauf. Suddenly, Stauf's picture turned animate. It said, "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" Then, it returned normal.

This startled the police! They looked behind the picture and saw no gadgets that could make him move. They even searched the entire room. Nothing was there that could possibly cause such a bizarre occurrence. They used handheld machinery to find hidden machines, but there was nothing detected. They turned around and saw a picture of the music room. Suddenly, they were pulled in, and then, the plant pulled them upstairs.

Then, they met with the other team who was trembling in the coin bedroom. "We saw a supernatural event, and there was no logical explanation. We checked," the downstairs team said.

"Us too. We saw hands come out of a picture, steam traveling down the halls, and gallons of blood traveling faster than light-speed from the attic," the other team said. "We checked for explanations, too, but there weren't any."

"There must be something paranormal here, so how about we send in some scientific researchers to find out if anything is going on here?" the downstairs team suggested. Then, all four of the police officers went down the plant, opened the double doors in the music room, and left the house, going back to Greenfield Circle.

At that same time, the court case was over, and both of the men were declared innocent. The two officers who had seen the Stauf house before were at court and contacted the search team. The officers told the search team that the men were innocent. All the officers that explored the Stauf house told them of their experiences, and they explained what they planned to do.

"Good idea," the officers from the court said. "There might be some paranormal things there that might have been stuck there for the past 70 years." The officers from the Stauf house got into their cars and headed for the police station.


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

It was a dark and rainy Thursday at the Stauf house, like it usually was. Ten researchers entered the house with large, delicate, and sophisticated equipment. They had planned to do some research there for 4 days and get the results on the night of the last. The first day, which was that day, they would collect samples of things around and inside the house, such as air, water, dirt, and they would take samples from some of the house's objects to see if even they had a paranormal effect on the house. They did their research that day. Nothing strange was found about anything inside or near the house. The next day, they did two things. They did the same thing as last time, and they did live research with computers when they were present and both times everything was normal. The last two days, they sent in large machinery into the house and did some research about the same way as last time, except the operation was more sophisticated, and the hunters were not present.

On Sunday night, when the researchers came back to the Stauf house, they had realized that all their equipment had been destroyed. The men repaired their equipment, and when they played what the machinery recorded on videotape, they were shocked!

On every piece of machinery, they saw a light, but it had outlines within it. It looked like Stauf. He approached every piece of equipment and destroyed it. According to cameras that recorded only what humans could see, the Stauf ghost was not visible, but they did suddenly see machinery being smashed and falling apart, and suddenly, the cameras would no longer display the room or area it recorded.

One of the men turned off the machine that played what all the machines recorded. The researchers were watching the video in the space between the stained-glass door and the stairs. The man said, "According to the machinery that we used in the operation, there are no paranormal things in the house. We are now dealing with…ghosts. We need to call some priests and have them get rid of the ghost named Stauf."

The men walked around the house, took away the machinery, and went to the stained-glass door. Just as they were about to open it, Stauf's portrait sprung from underneath. It landed on the ground and wobbled towards the researchers in a hurry. The researchers opened the door, ran out, and slammed it. The portrait hit the door and bounced backwards in the air and went back through the rug.


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

The next day, on Monday night, 200 priests entered the Stauf house through the stained-glass door. The police and the researchers had found priests from many churches and asked them to sanctify the Stauf house. The priests turned out all the electrical lights and gas lamps, and then, they lit incense all around and went all around the house, blessing every room and every section. They also re-blessed areas that other priests had already blessed. They were doing well, until one moment.

Three priests that blessed the art gallery got an unexpected surprise. Stauf's portrait jumped off the wall and landed on the floor. Stauf's hands came out of the picture and tried to squeeze the priests. They said chants, screamed at the picture, and they did many other things, but nothing seemed to work. Suddenly, all the priests that were blessing the Stauf house were knocked down and trapped in rooms. They did everything they knew to try to save them, but nothing worked. At last, the priests got so fed up that they turned the lights back on, blew the incense out, and left the house in despair.

The rest of the week, the priests did the same thing, but there was no luck. At last, they held a church service in Stauf's chapel the following Sunday. Hopefully, that would help. Unfortunately, there was no success. Stauf appeared in the middle of the service as a sign to show that there was no hope in getting rid of him. The priests still didn't give up. Every Sunday, they held services, but the same thing still kept happening.

The priests decided to always stay in the house to at least keep it under control. On one day of patrol and blessing, Stauf's painting mysteriously appeared in a priest's hands. Its hands came out, and then, the priest dropped the picture and ran.

Finally, the priests decided to give up for a while. They took everything with them, and they left the house through the stained-glass door.


	18. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

For the last few days and weeks, priests, police officers, and science researchers tried to get Stauf out of the house. No luck. In fact, things got worse. Stauf appeared around the house on a regular basis. He always appeared on the instant midnight stroke. According to science experiments, there was always lots of radioactivity in the air.

No matter how things got, everyone just wanted Stauf to leave his house. Joseph and Chris finally returned to the house property, but they hardly went inside. They were just trying to think of ways themselves to finally defeat Stauf.

One day, Joseph and Chris were sitting by the gravestones behind Stauf's house, when all of a sudden, an ancient template rose from the ground. It said that extremely mean ghosts would be defeated if one would actually destroy them. The template sank back into the ground and was never seen again.

"Hey, I think I know how to defeat Stauf!" Joseph stood up and said excitedly.

"How?" Chris said curiously and excitedly.

"We have to burn Stauf's body and his coffin, and then, he will never appear again!" Joseph said.

"Doesn't that sound kind of mean?" Chris said.

"Yeah, but I have also figured another way to handle it," Joseph replied. Joseph and Chris hunched down with their arms around each other's backs, like in a football huddle, while Joseph whispered the plan to Chris. "OK, we dig **really** far down until we get to heck, and then, we dig up Stauf's coffin, throw it down the hole, fill up the hole to the evil place, and have you-know-who take 'care' of Stauf," Joseph said.

Then, the boys stood up. "Brilliant!" Chris said. "But do you think that we can dig a hole to heck?" he asked.

"Well, maybe," Joseph said. "First, we have to dig up Stauf's coffin, and then, we play Spaceboys and head southward," Joseph said. "We can play Spaceboys, just like we do on the bus!" Joseph exclaimed. Chris gave Joseph an odd look. "I mean, just like **I** play on the bus…" Joseph corrected. Chris never really took much interest in playing Joseph's silly games like Spaceboys. Spaceboys was a game Joseph played on the bus, and he tried to get Chris to play along too, but Chris never wanted to fully participate. The Spaceboys were people on a spaceship that once went down to heck by accident but often left because they defeated you-know-who.


	19. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

Joseph and Chris used Joseph's emergency shovel from his ear to dig for Stauf's coffin. At last, they found Stauf's coffin, which was located 7 miles deep in the ground. It looked like an ordinary wooden stained brown coffin, except it had "STAUF" engraved on the lid. Joseph started to climb out of the hole in the ground, leaving Chris behind, when suddenly, Chris pulled him down.

"There is **NO WAY** you are going to leave me 7 miles down here with an evil man alone in the dark!" Chris said.

"OK, then, I'll have the computer attach the pulley on the ground itself," Joseph said.

"PHEW!" sighed Chris. Joseph pulled a remote control from his ear and pressed the center button. A pulley was beamed where Joseph was, and then, the reel shot up 7 miles to the top of the ground, and then, it attached to the dirt. Then, Joseph put a yellow strap around the coffin. It was wide, smooth, and very shiny. He connected both ends and hooked the hook on the pulley to the hook connection, which was found in between the attachment point.

Then, Joseph and Chris hopped onto the coffin. Then, Joseph pressed a button on the remote control, and then, the pulley lifted the coffin up slowly. Finally, at the end of the ride, Joseph and Chris had successfully lifted Stauf's coffin from 7 miles down.

Then, Joseph and Chris played Spaceboys! They had their ship on the ground, and then, they unhooked Stauf's coffin, loaded it into the ship through the back doors, and then got out, put away the pulley, and filled in the dirt to where they dug.

At last, Joseph and Chris got into their ship and flew into space. The coffin took up just about all of the cargo area in the back of the ship. The cargo area had two double doors in the back and had nothing else back there. They had black seats in the front and many buttons, controls, and gages. It was about the size of a mail truck, and its body was like a plane, except it flew in space.

Once Joseph and Chris were in space, Joseph put the ship on automatic pilot, opened one of the double doors, and went behind the seats again. Joseph pushed Stauf's coffin out of the ship. The coffin headed straight down for heck. Joseph and Chris headed back to Earth.

Meanwhile, a playful scientist was looking through the telescope, when he saw Stauf's coffin flying down from space. "Hey, guys! Look! There's a coffin falling down from space past Earth!" he said. All the people in the library ran to the telescope and looked through it and saw it. "Look, it even has the word 'Stauf'!" the man said. "I guess Stauf has been defeated.

Little did they know that he was not yet defeated because he hadn't landed in heck yet. Suddenly, Stauf appeared in the library. Everyone turned his or her attention to him. "I'm going to get you!" Stauf yelled as he approached the people.

"That's it, the only hope is to tear this place down," someone in the group said. Then, everyone in the library ran past Stauf and left the library. They ran through the foyer, opened the stained-glass door, and drove away to rent a crane with a wrecking ball to destroy the Stauf house.

Meanwhile, Stauf's coffin had passed Earth. Finally, a few miles from heck, Stauf's coffin zoomed down extremely fast, faster than light-speed, and finally disappeared into the huge fires below.

Joseph and Chris had now reentered Earth successfully, and then, they began to zoom down towards the Stauf house. Then, they slowed the vehicle and landed it. Then, they got out and stopped playing Spaceboys. Their spacecraft disappeared in thin air. Then, Joseph and Chris ran up to the house and then discovered that people were about to destroy the Stauf house. A crane drove on the plains by the narrow pathway. The driver set the wrecking ball to swing, and then, Joseph and Chris yelled out, "STAUF HAS BEEN DEFEATED ALREADY!"

The driver looked at the house and said, "Uh-oh." Then, the wrecking ball destroyed part of the house. The driver drove away and left the Stauf property. Then, word about Stauf being defeated went around the house, and at last, everyone except Bob Carmichael and "Old Man" John left. Joseph and Chris thanked everyone for trying to help.

Then, the raining stopped, and then, the clouds drifted away, and the sun shone on the dark area. Then, Joseph, Chris, "Old Man" John, and Bob Carmichael got on the roof and fixed the destroyed house using the same parts that were destroyed, except they restored them to like-new condition. They were glad Stauf was gone. Now, they could live there again.


	20. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

After fixing the roof of the house, Joseph, Chris, "Old Man" John, and Bob Carmichael decided to move into the Stauf house. Joseph and Chris decided to live in the Stauf house. First, they all restored the Stauf house to its original beauty and looks. Then, they moved in.

Bob Carmichael was the first to move in. Since he had so many inventions, he needed a place to set them first. They all figured that the laboratory was the best place. With everyone's help, they built a railroad from Bob's house to Stauf's house and shipped Bob's inventions from his metal structure to the Stauf house. Then, they all moved Stauf's machines and objects to different parts of the laboratory to make room for Bob's. Then, Bob decided to sleep in Dutton's old room because it was the closest to the lab. He left the bed that was in his metal structure and used the one in Stauf's house. The big-screen TV that was used for Bob to monitor his lab with was moved into the bedroom. The rest of the furniture in the room was removed so that Bob could put his objects in the bedroom. The unused furniture was moved out of the way and put in front of the door to the attic stairs.

Then, Joseph moved in. Joseph made several trips to his house on his bike, moving all of his things into the Stauf house. Joseph left his bed at his house behind but took everything else with him. Joseph decided to have his bedroom in the chess bishop room, and then, he moved everything in. Joseph, Chris, Bob, and "Old Man" John helped move in Joseph's 150-inch TV into the room by making the door space larger temporarily. Joseph moved his TV set on the left side of the fireplace. Then, Joseph moved in his dresser on the back wall, and then, he put his desk by the four-poster bed. It had Joseph's microphone, other electronics, paper, a pen, and a pencil. Since Joseph's parents bought a new computer, they let Joseph keep the old Packard Bell computer. Joseph placed that on his desk as well.

Joseph removed the four-poster bed that was in the room and used the mechanical one he used when camping in the house. Then, Joseph placed huge speakers around the room. They were attached to his microphone, computer, and TV. There was a switch that alternated between them and a switch for volume and sound quality. Then, Joseph placed a wire that connected his computer and TV. That way, when Joseph wanted to see what was on his computer, he could change the TV channel to channel 4, and he would see it on his TV without looking at the tiny monitor. Then, Joseph took down the old wallpaper and painted the room and then cleaned it. Then, he fixed the electrical wiring to make it more efficient and then had a perfect room. Then, Joseph shared the laboratory Bob used so that he could experiment with his things there, too. Then, Joseph added a special doorbell to his room, that if someone knocked, an electronic sign would appear that would say either "COME IN" or "JOSEPH IS BUSY, WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE HIM ANYWAY" or "PLEASE DON'T DISTURB JOSEPH". Then, after moving into the room, Joseph placed the door and transom window back on. Then, Joseph put a big shelf in his room left of the door to store many minor things he brought along. He also took his box of supplies and his toolbox, which were still in the hall by the painting, and placed them in his room.

Chris was the next to move in. He brought everything he had, except his bed. Chris moved into the bedroom where Temple slept. Chris moved out all the furniture Stauf had, except for the bed, and moved them in front of the door to the attic stairs.

Then, Chris put in a wardrobe on the left side of the back room facing the bed. Chris then moved in his dresser and placed it next to the wardrobe. Left of the dresser, Chris put some big shelves there to store his minor things. Chris decorated the room and put some minor things in the nightstand he set up by his bed. Then, Chris replaced the simple incandescent lamp above and replaced it with a disco ball. Chris also moved in a stereo set with two big speakers.

"Old Man" John was the last to move in. He moved into the room across from Chris. Since he didn't own any well-built furniture, he just simply walked in, put his bags up, put his few possessions around the room, and just had a simple bedroom.

Finally, the job of fixing the house was coming up. Instead of using batteries for the electricity, Joseph and Bob tore down the old electrical lines that were in tangles, cut, wrapped in kudzu, and barely providing electricity for the house. Then, they put in a new, underground wiring system 20 feet in the ground, which provided more electricity than the old one. The old wires were getting so beaten up that they couldn't do much anymore.

Then, Joseph and Bob both went around the house and fixed the electricity by putting in more outlets, switches, light fixture connections, and making the electricity run more efficiently. Joseph placed a huge spotlight in the center of the fluorescent light ring downstairs in the foyer. He also created another switch for it too. Then, he put fluorescent lighting in the left and right alcoves in a circular way. He also put big spotlights in the center of both fluorescent rings. He created two switches for each lighting unit on each side. Then, throughout the rest of the house, Joseph placed fluorescent lighting, except for the back attic room. In there, he placed a big spot light in the center of the ceiling.

Then, everyone cleaned the house, sweeping it, vacuuming it, etc. They also cleaned the objects in the house. Then, Joseph and Bob fixed the water system and made the water run more efficiently and go to more areas in the house. Joseph and Bob put a wall mount water fountain in each room, except for the bathroom and kitchen. That way, every other room in the Stauf house would get water too.


	21. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

After fixing the house, Joseph, Chris, "Old Man" John, and Bob organized the attic. They moved all the things they didn't need in the house up there. In the library, the red sofa in the center of the room was rotated to face the fireplace. They moved a cabinet out of the way so they could put in a 50-inch TV. They also moved the coffee table in front of the sofa, and placed a tall lamp next to the sofa on the left side. They moved the cabinet up to the attic.

The art gallery was used as an indoor swimming pool. Joseph and Bob extended the walls of the art gallery so that there would be space for people to walk around the room, sit in chairs, and for the glass wall that they installed to protect the art. They took apart the floorboards and chairs in the center of the room to make the space for the pool. After building the pool and finishing it, they took the spare wood and chairs to the attic.

The doll room Stauf made was now a 24-hour open arcade. Many video games were in there. As for Stauf's dolls, they were moved to the attic. The attic was now like a warehouse because it stored everything that Joseph and the others put up there, as well as the things that were already up there. The objects that were placed up there were placed on the left and right side of the attic in a straight line. Most of the objects were placed on long, silver metal shelves. Three long fluorescent bulbs were producing light down on the walkway between both walls of the objects. The room at the end of the attic where Stauf sat was turned into a special card-playing room.

Since the new residents of the Stauf house all liked playing cards, and they wanted to see the mountains at the same time, they decided to have a special place for it instead of the game room. They put many shelves in there to store things that couldn't be put in the attic or elsewhere in the house. There was also a shelf with many card games. Every Friday night, the guys would play card games late until near midnight.

One Friday night, the guys were playing Bridge in their special game room. The door was wide open, and the overhead spotlight was turned on slightly dim, shining over the small wooden table in the center of the room, where everyone sat down in wooden chairs by it and played cards.

Then, at one point of the game, Joseph said to Chris, who was sitting across from him, "I'll raise you 50!" Joseph pushed some yellow plastic chips over to Chris's side.

"This is fun! I like playing cards with everybody. Isn't it nice living here?" Chris said.

Suddenly, the electricity in the entire house flickered and finally shut off. The guys turned their heads towards the front attic room. Its bright fluorescent lights, which were on a minute ago, were now off. The overhead light in the card-playing room was pitch black.

Then, although no one could see anything, they could somewhat see and hear the door slam shut faster than light-speed. Then, a certain someone's ghost slowly faded into the room. He approached them, and then, everyone began to cower.


	22. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Joseph, Chris, "Old Man" John, and Bob wondered if Stauf really left or if he came back mysteriously. The answer was destined to be learned in the sequel to this story called Joseph and Chris Visit the Stauf House II.

The four new residents of the Stauf mansion later discovered that to their dismay, Stauf had not been defeated as they hoped. They continue their adventures in the Stauf mansion in an attempt to finally beat Stauf.

Some of the things that happened in the story are based on what happens in the computer game rated for teens, The 7th Guest. The part about involving the characters Joseph, Chris, "Old Man" John, Bob, and other outsiders to the Stauf mansion never exists in The 7th Guest. Tad, Stauf, Temple, Heine, Mr. Knox, Mrs. Knox, Burden, Dutton, and the other ghosts are indeed part of the computer game. The rooms all exist in The 7th Guest, and their original description in the story describes them correctly. In the computer game, going outside the house is impossible. Many elements in the story interacted with the original setting of the Stauf mansion, thus making some fictional changes to the setting that never occurred in the game.

**To Be Continued**


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